THE FREEDOM TO BLOG

I am free as a journalist and blogger to write my views without fear that they’ll be censored, blocked or indeed that I will be imprisoned, tortured or even killed for stating my beliefs.

My views, of course, may not be your views but it is the essence of the ethic of freedom of speech, so greatly valued by Britons, that I should have the liberty to state my beliefs even if others disagree with them.

I write my words in Spain where within my lifetime such freedoms have not always existed and many paid in blood or exile for giving voice to beliefs and ideas that were at odds with those of the Franco regime.

There are also today in the world, those on the left of politics, who believe that Cuba can do no wrong. I have written here in the past in support of the campaigns to have the US embargoes of the Caribbean Island lifted. However I am not looking so far left that I cannot see the injustice staring me in the face.

I add my voice to those of the Federación de Asociaciones de Periodistas de España (FAPE) that has called on the Cuban authorities to respect freedom of expression and human rights after the death of Orlando Zapata.

Gerardo Ducos, Amnesty International’s Caribbean researcher stated: “The tragic death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo is a terrible illustration of the despair facing prisoners of conscience who see no hope of being freed from their unfair and prolonged incarceration. A full investigation must be carried out to establish whether ill-treatment may have played a part in his death.”

Currently three political prisoners and the dissident journalist Guillermo Coco Fariñas (photo above) are on hunger strike following the news of Zapata’s death on February 24.

This is not the first experience Fariñas has had of a hunger strike. He started another in 2006 to demand free access for Cubans to the internet. He has called for a cession to “the governmental violence against our people, against the bloggers and the independent journalists.”

FAPE, an organization that represents over 14,500 journalists in 48 federated associations and 13 associations who are linked offers its solidarity to Fariñas and the rest of his Cuban colleagues who are restricted in their freedom of expression.

In its annual report Reporteros Sin Fronteras classified Cuba only after China and Eritrea for the numbers of journalists it imprisoned. Since the Primavera Negra of March 2003 19 of the 27 journalists detained there are still behind bars.

This is of concern not only to me as a journalist and blogger but also to you as a reader – who may or may not take the opportunity to express your opinions here – because my freedom to write and yours to read and comment are what are at risk in Cuba and other totalitarian regimes.

Please take action by signing the Amnesty International España petition by clicking here.

FREE SPEECH OR INSULT?

I return today to the subject of the Spanish Royal Family and the public’s right to free speech.

I should first state that whilst in Britain I would now describe myself as a Republican as a foreign resident in Spain I have a positive view of this country’s royal family although I accept that some Spaniards do not.

Recently the co-ordinator general of far-left Izquierda Unida, Cayo Lara, pointed the finger at the Royal Family accusing it of being a fiscal paradise. He argued that in recent years the Royal Family has operated as “an opaque fiscal paradise” with a lack of absolute transparency. He added that this has a very negative impact especially at this time of financial crisis.

In an interview with Europa Press the far left politician viewed positively the recent High Court ruling by Santiago Pedraz on the insults that were shouted at King Juan Carlos at the final of the Copa del Rey in Valencia. The judge viewed them as no more than a freedom of expression.

This contrasts with the case of the IU mayor of Puerto Real, José Antonio Barroso, who was fined 6,840 euros in June by judge José María Vázquez Honrubia in the High Court in Madrid. Barroso was answering a case brought by the Ministerio Fiscal that in April last year at a Republican Rally in Los Barrios he had made statements in his speech that were injurious to the king – Juan Carlos I.

So if a soccer crowd shouts insults at the King and boos the Spanish national anthem it is displaying freedom of speech and expression. However if Barroso states his clearly held views on the Spanish Royal Family and the King’s father that is deemed as slandering the monarch.

I am sorry there is something wrong here. Freedom of speech is not something you can turn on or off. Whilst I broadly support the Spanish Royal Family I accept the rights of others to voice their genuinely held views without fear of prosecution. Or if the King felt Barroso had gone too far then he should have gone to court to seek remedy and not the public prosecutor at our expense. After all if Lara is correct, Juan Carlos can well afford it!

GOD SAVE THE ANTHEM
http://tiltingatwindmillsblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/god-save-our-anthem.html

DEAR KING PLEASE SEND US 6848 EUROS
http://tiltingatwindmillsblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/dear-king-please-send-us-6848-euros.html

WAS THE CÁDIZ CARNAVAL GAGGED?

“Increíble pero cierto. Los carnavales de Cádiz, en otros tiempos cuna de la libre creatividad crítica y de la indomable rebeldía popular ante el poder establecido, no han producido ni una sola letra crítica en su versión de 2009. En la España actual, con 4 millones de parados y con una clase política que escandaliza a la ciudadanía a diario con sus despilfarros, abusos, corrupciones y desatinos, hay materia y razones más que suficientes para que la crítica carnavalesca, en una tierra antes libre, como Cádiz, hubiera sido feroz, pero los carnavales gaditanos han sido castrados por el eficaz y omnipresente poder político andaluz.”

Regular readers of my blog will know that I am an avid follower of the ‘Voto en Blanco’ website of respected journalist Francisco Rubiales. As you will see above this week he questioned whether the performers at the Cádiz Carnaval had been gagged.

Well there is no British comparison for the Spanish form of Carnaval of which the Cádiz Carnaval is unique. We do have a reputation for irreverent satire often aimed at our political masters. The carnaval acts I have seen over the years have been risqué, political, barbed and hilarious, often tilting at the windmills of every day life.

I must admit I haven’t seen any of this years acts but Francisco quite rightly reckons that with four million jobless, corruption rife plus numerous fiascos in public life then the ‘comprasas’ and ‘chirigotas’ who perform on stage at Cádiz’s Falla theatre had a rich vein of material to draw on.

He believes they dodged the challenge. Why he asks – was it because it was transmitted by Canal Sur, which is controlled by the PSOE run Andalucía government or because those who hand out the grants have their own agenda?

I don’t know! Yet what is certain is that in a free society, be it in Spain or Britain, we need to defend our right to speak out and ridicule our masters when they deserve it – and nobody can deny that right now they do truly deserve it.

In 2012 Cádiz celebrates the 200 th anniversary of ‘La Pepa’, the constitution that is considered in the Spanish speaking world as the ‘Magna Carta’ of nations. ‘La Pepa’ was drawn up and signed by the Cortes Parliament that was then sitting in the city of Cádiz before being suppressed by Napoleon. It would be cruelly ironic if in the year of its commemoration by leaders of Hispano-American nations that the Cádiz Carnaval was by then so neutered that it had become a meaningless parody of itself.

Behind ‘La Pepa’ was the cry of freedom and the regeneration of democracy. Both freedom and democracy are now under threat and we rely on such celebrations as the Cádiz Carnaval to remind ourselves and the wider world we are both free and democratic!

POLÍTICOS, LOS NUEVOS AMOS

In his introduction to Francisco Rubiales book, “Políticos, Los Nuevos Amos”, the former Spanish government minister Manuel Pimental writes in his introduction: “Políticos, los nuevos amos afronta el problema de la degradación del poder con extraordinaria valentía, claridad y profundidad”.

Pimentel goes on to recommend the book to presidents, ministers, those holding political office, party activities and all citizens who are anxious and worried by the state of democracy. He adds that it is a tough book, free, holding political correctness in contempt, has the ability to provoke thought and strikes hard blows to the reader’s conscience.”

The main thrust of the book is that: “Existe un componente depredador y rastrero en el concepto de poder que nunca ha abandonado el escenario a lo largo de los siglos. Unas clases dominantes suceden a otras y cada época establece sus sistemas de dominación y sus reglas, pero el poder, aunque disfrazado, sigue siendo el mismo: depredador, al servicio de las élites, implacable y utilizado sólo por los amos como instrumento para dominar y sojuzgar”.

Now regular readers of my blog will know that I often refer to Francisco Rubiales blog ‘Voto en Blanco’ and pick up on themes that he and his writers debate. I also urge all my readers to read these thoughts and views, many of which deal with citizens’ impotency in a democracy that has been hijacked by the politicians.

I believe that it is important for all thinking foreign residents in Spain to engage with blogs such as ‘Voto en Blanco’ to get a feel for the views and thoughts being debated by the country’s writers and concerned citizens. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t argue that you should accept Francisco’s or his writers’ views but you should feel free to argue and debate them online.

Let’s be frank, if Francisco is correct and the politicians have kidnapped politics then we must keep democracy alive through freedom of speech and the right to debate freely.

Therefore it is important that we all make our voices heard.

LIBERTAD EN PRENSA

There is an interesting blog on the ‘Voto en Blanco’ website entitled: “España: demasiados periodistas al servicio del poder dominante”. It argues that journalists in Spain are no longer free and that they have abandoned the pursuit of truth and instead have become “"propagandistas", "publicistas" or "agitadores" for the political commissars.

It is difficult for a Briton, from a nation that has enjoyed freedom of speech for centuries, to envisage what freedom of the press means in Spain where a dictatorship decreed what you could say well within living memory.

But what is freedom of the press?

Certainly in British terms a newspaper has a right to say what it likes within the bounds of the laws governing State security and liable. However nobody is foolish enough to suggest that journalists enjoy independent freedom other than which their masters wish them to employ.

For instance a journalist writing for the Daily Mirror knows that the paper is heavily slanted to supporting socialism and a Labour government as a hack on the Daily Mail will be expected to take a pro Conservative line.

Broadcasters who work for Fox News and Sky TV and journalists on The Times and in The Sun are in no doubt that at the end of the day they will reflect the views of Rupert Murdoch on major issues.

As long as the wider public is aware of this then no great harm is done and in general it is Labour supporters who read the Daily Mirror and Tory voters who buy the Daily Mail.

Those who want to plough a more independent furrow have to revert to the free world of blogs or start their own publication.

Certainly within the confines of writing in Spain I am aware that the majority of local English language newspapers will not report negative reports on some financial advisors even though too many ex-pats have been ripped off by them leaving their lives in ruin. They have been big advertisers and hence that money has bought silence.

An international radio station run by Onda Cero that is now defunct has carried numerous commercials over the years for the same suspect financial advisors as well as those hawking investments in ostriches or promising miracles cancer cures from crystals. Many listeners suffered whilst Onda Cero pocketed the income from the ads with no guilty conscience.

I know of one English publication, now also defunct, that barred any criticism of ETA because it was convinced the terrorist organisation read its news and would exact revenge if it spoke out against it.

That is the reality that journalists, who might wish to expose financial corruption or show ETA up for what it is, have to work in. We live in a free society but the freedom of journalists is dependent on the limits that their employers place on them.

So yes in Britain and Spain journalists, publications and broadcasters do enjoy freedom of speech but the bounds of that freedom are set not by journalists but by their employers and those they sympathise with.

This is in stark contrast to countries where there is no freedom of expression for anyone and the lines of press freedom are demarked by the bullet from a gun.

THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH

As I write this the Izquierda Unida mayor of Puerto Real, José Antonio Barroso, is preparing to face a court charged with criticising the Spanish monarchy. The far-left firebrand says he has no regrets about the opinions he expressed about the Spanish monarch, Juan Carlos, and his father despite the possibility of being sentenced to jail.

The prosecutor has decided to take the matter to court because of what the mayor said in Los Barrios on April 14 at an event to commemorate the proclamation of the II Republic. During his speech the outspoken Barroso cast aspersions on the King and his father. He accused the monarch of being “corrupt” because of some of his business associations and said he was the “hijo de crápula”, accusing his father of being a libertine.

José Antonio Barroso insists that he spoke “under the umbrella of the constitutional right to free expression which all Spanish nationals are supposed to have” and that he was expressing his political convictions. However the judge in the Spanish High Court, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, on Monday refused to file the case saying that he considered the verbal attack on the King was “disproportionate” and beyond the bounds of free speech.

As a Briton I am free to criticise our Royal Family and I find it alarming that in a country where free speech is enshrined in the constitution the Spanish monarchy is placed outside of the law. I also believe that only a Spaniard is qualified to say whether King Juan Carlos and his family are a force for good or bad. As a foreign resident I would say “good” but as Barroso rightly argues, it should be the right of all Spanish nationals to voice their genuinely held views, be they political or otherwise, without fear of prosecution.

I wonder what King Juan Carlos makes of all this. At various conferences for journalists he has defended strongly the freedom of the press and the right to free speech. Surely the Spanish monarch does not believe that applies to all except him?

Whether what Barroso says about the King and his father is true or not – it is his personally held view and therefore in my book he has the perfect right to express it. Freedom of speech is after all a basic human right recognised and defended by the United Nations.

I think it was Voltaire who said – “I may not agree with what you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it.” Let’s hope the prosecutor and the judge take note.