Statement on the Spanish Government’s plan to modify criminal offences relating to freedom of speech

International NGO Blueprint for Free Speech supports the announced move by the Spanish government for law reform that will improve freedom of speech in Spain. The European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations Human Rights Council have called for changes to the Spanish Penal Code to meet international standards for an advanced democracy.

Spanish rapper ‘Pablo Hasel’ (Pablo Rivadulla Duró) will be imprisoned on Friday for exercising his freedom of expression. He is due to serve a nine month sentence. There are three offences in his case: insulting the crown, glorifying terrorism and insulting state institutions.

According to media reports, the court had ruled against the position of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the defence.

Other rappers have also faced legal threats including César Augusto Montaña Lehmann (César Strawberry), singer of the group Def con Dos, and Josep Miquel Arenas (the artist known as 'Valtonyc’). All of them are accused - and some convicted - of crimes of glorification of terrorism, slander and insulting the Crown.

Such prosecutions are out of step with modern norms of freedom of expression and they erode the rights of all people under the UN Declaration of Human Rights, whose Article 19 states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

Such prosecutions are particularly troubling as artists are often at the vanguard of ideas and movements that propel a society forward. To silence and intimidate them is a threat to a nation’s culture as well as the human rights of its people.

On February 9 the Spanish political party Unidas Podemos, which is in power in Spain as part of a coalition government, presented a law proposal that explicitly repeals the articles of the Penal Code that refer to the offences of insulting the Crown, insulting religious sentiments, insulting state institutions and glorifying terrorism.  

In the statement from the Secretary of State for Communication, the Ministry of Justice, headed by Minister Juan Carlos Campo, the Government has announced it will propose "a revision of the offences related to excesses in the exercise of freedom of expression so that only conduct that clearly involves the creation of a risk to public order or the provocation of some kind of violent behaviour is punished, with dissuasive penalties, but not custodial sentences".

The types of offences to be modified include the crime of glorification of terrorism and humiliation of victims, in Article 578 of the Penal Code; hate crime, in Article 510; the crimes of insulting the Crown and other institutions, contemplated in Articles 490 and following; and crimes against religious sentiments, Articles 522 and following of the aforementioned Penal Code. 

The statement adds: "The Ministry, in its proposal, will consider that those verbal excesses committed in the context of artistic, cultural or intellectual events should remain outside the scope of criminal punishment".

This is an important step for Spain, and one which should receive international recognition.

This progress in freedom of expression shows Spain taking definitive action, and serves as model for other leaders in Europe in its actions to protect freedom of expression.

200 artists in Spain have signed a public statement in support of the rapper Hasel’s right to freedom of expression – and we agree with them.

Their public statement raises concerns about “the persecution of rappers, tweeters, journalists, as well as other representatives of culture and art.”

Spanish NGO PDLI has also made a similar statement about the need for the Spanish Government to take urgent action on this with law reform, which we also support.  

Freedom of expression is embedded as a right in European and international laws, rulings and charters.

“This could signal a turning point for Spain. In the past, its political decision-makers were too afraid or reluctant to make meaningful law reform change,” Blueprint’s Spanish Project Manager Bruno Galizzi said. “This is a moment of truth – and the rest of Europe is watching,” he added.

“These sorts of laws have a chilling effect – people self-censor their words and then their thoughts,” Blueprint’s Executive Director Suelette Dreyfus said. “Such laws produce silence and stagnation, not creative artists and robust debate. But a vibrant, thriving democracy needs open voices.”