Today, judge Juan del Olmo from the Audiencia Nacional (Spain's highest court in penal matters which pre-constitutional origins have been studied by Antonio María Lorca Navarrete, professor in Procedural Law in the Universidad del País Vasco who affirms that the Audiencia Nacional was born "under the shelter of a doubtful democratic regulation") has ordered the Policía Nacional (Spanish national Police) the legal "kidnapping" (a nice way of saying "I don't like you and I censor you because I am the unquestionable law) of the Spanish satiric magazine called El Jueves (edited in Barcelona and sold in all Spain) under the accusation of slanderous caricatures of the Spanish Monarchy. Moreover they want to close El Jueves web site. In the front page of the arrested number you can see a couple fucking (they look like prince Felipe and princess Letizia) under the title: € 2,500 per baby (referring to the promise made by president Zapatero to help families with € 2,500 every time they have a baby). The man in the picture says "Do you notice that if you get pregnant, that will be the most similar to work I have never made?" This is the cover published in all newspapers and web sites after the arrest (Avui , Il corriere della sera , BBC news , El País)
Well, I am against censorship and I think freedom is the real unquestionable right. It seems that Juan del Olmo and the Audiencia Nacional do not agree with me and as guardians of the pure and eternal Spanish essences have ordered the legal arrest of the magazine. Moreover, the author of that cartoon can be charged of offending the Monarchy and condemned to be imprisoned for two years. No, I am not talking about radical islamists threatening a magazine because of some caricatures of Mahoma. I am talking about supposed democrat Spaniards that should defend free expression. No, I am not talking about dictatorial North Korea. I am talking about the democratic Spain. But there are some similarities in both cases, aren't there? Radical islamists and North Korea have some curious similarities to Spain and some Spanish judges: they think they have the unique truth. As you can see, the age of Enlightenment is something that happened to others (not to the deep feudal Spanish minds nowadays dressed as democrats).
When radical islamists censor free expression we call them barbarians and anti-democrats. So, what will we call Audiencia Nacional after this attack to free expression in Spain? Remember that there is one supposed democrat Constitution that legalize these kind of acts. In the rest of the civilized Europe that would be a great scandal and would have cost some resignations. In Spain it is normal and nothing will happen. Even more, I bet that judge Juan del Olmo will be soon promoted.
It is not the first time that free expression is censored in Spain. The most famous one happened in 1905 when the Spanish Army assulted and burned the editorial office of a satiric Catalan magazine named "Cu-Cut!" and the editorial office of the newspaper La Veu de Catalunya (The voice of Catalonia), both well-known public defenders of Catalanism. But we don't have to go so far to find examples of censorship in Spain. More or less a year ago a judge censored an advertisment in favor of the legalization of Catalan national teams. The arrest of that ad was based in the fact that the actors were children and that was against the law of children protection. Beneath you can watch the censored video where you can see some children playing football (or soccer) dressed with some T-shirts that look like the colours of some national teams. Then there is one that wants to join them. He wears the T-shirt of the Catalan national team and the one dressed with the Spanish T-shirt don't let him join. Then the Catalan boy takes the T-shirt off and the rest do the same and then they can play together. That means that Catalans want to practise sport with all nations excluding no one, and that the real fact is that Spain doesn't allow it due to political matters that have nothing to do with sport (they have to do with Spanish superiority syndrome).
But according to the argument used to censor that ad, they should have censored this other ad made by AES-DN, a Spanish neo-fascist party where you can see a child with the Spanish flag in his face following the title "Proud to be Spanish". Obviusly the child is used with radical (and non-democratic) political pourposes. But surprisingly it wasn't censored. I think that none of them should have been censored, but as you can see in Spain they don't treat everyone the same. They prefer neo-fascist ads to Catalan democratic rights. Neo-fascists have no problems to express but Catalan democrats are censored or even arrested and tortured (take a look at my last post). So the eternal and pure Spanish essences are closer to neo-fascists than to democratic principles. That is the reality in the democratic Spain. Sun and beaches, censors and inquisition. Monarchist semi-feudal democracy. Limited and under surveillance free expression. If you come to Spain, don't forget that and try to see the country with different eyes.
Catalonia has no future in this country. Catalonia needs its own country. Catalonia is not Spain.
Shame on Spain.
Cap comentari:
Publica un comentari a l'entrada