The

Constitutional Court

has endorsed the sentence imposed on the former councilor of Catarroja (Valencia)

Datxu Peris

for celebrating the death of the bullfighter

Víctor Barrio

the day after he died as a result of being caught

in the Teruel bullring

.

The magistrates affirm that freedom of expression does not cover expressions such as those made by the former mayor and rejects her appeal.

Peris wrote on Facebook that he considered it a

"positive" fact

that Barrio "

has already stopped killing

.

"

"I cannot feel sorry for the murderer who has died now any more than for all the corpses that he has left in his wake while he has lived," he wrote on July 10, 2016.

A court sentenced her to compensate

the Barrio family

with

7,000 euros

for violating the

right to honor

of the right-hander. The Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court ratified the decision, which the Constitutional Court now makes final. The TC emphasizes that, given the circumstances of the case, the expressions used were

"unnecessary, disproportionate

, as well as lacking any anchor in the exercise of the right to freedom of expression."

He adds that "in order to publicly defend his anti-bullfighting positions,

it was not necessary to qualify

Víctor Barrio

as a

murderer or oppressor

on the social network

and show relief at his death. Even less so by accompanying the text with a photograph showing the badly wounded bullfighter, in the moment in which he was gored, with evident

signs of pain

, and to publish that publication a few hours after he died as a result of that goring in the Teruel bullring, thereby causing added pain to that of his relatives ".

According to the TC, if the conduct is

harmful to the right to honor

outside the network, it is also in it. "Freedom of expression cannot be an instrument to undermine the dignity of the human being, since it stands as the foundation of political order and social peace." The Court understands that qualifying the bullfighter as a

"murderer"

or

"member of the group of oppressors"

should be considered without the slightest hint of doubt as "an interference in his right to honor, as it implies a loss of

personal reputation

, as well as a

denigration

of his prestige and professional activity, with direct affectation to his own consideration and individual dignity ".

For the First Chamber of the TC, the use of such expressions was not required or demanded by an

exercise of "pluralism", "tolerance" or "spirit of openness"

, support of any democratic society and freedom of expression. On the contrary, precisely those principles called for "greater restraint and restraint in order not to unjustifiably undermine the respect due to human dignity, the pain of family members and the honor of the deceased."

The sentence,

of which the magistrate Santiago Martínez-Vares has been rapporteur, has the private vote of the magistrate María Luisa Balaguer, who proposed to estimate the appeal of the former councilor. The magistrate saw it necessary to take into account "the peculiarities of the communication process in virtual environments." Regarding the

ruling, it

maintains that the message shared on Facebook had "an

undeniable political content

on a controversial issue in Spain, such as bullfighting, and that this political content, the real effects of the dissemination of the message and the profile on the social network of the appellant in amparo, and the fact that the defense of honor that acts as a limit to

freedom of expression

refers to a person already deceased, they should have been considered in such a way as to lead to the estimation of the appeal for protection ".

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • constitutional Court

  • Teruel

  • Facebook

  • Valencia

  • Spain

  • Justice

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