Mexico City, June 24, 2009 (John M. Ackerman / Process) .- In the current context characterized by a deep economic crisis, political polarization open and clear institutional prestige, the good news are appreciated as a cup of cold water in an arid desert.
On Wednesday 17 the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) gave a very pleasant surprise to forcefully defend freedom of expression and access to public information. Unanimously, the members of that chamber supported the draft submitted by the Minister José Ramón Cossio, and prepared by the secretaries of study and has Francisca Pou and Roberto Lara, which gives a final under the director of a local newspaper in Guanajuato, Jesus Orozco Herrera, contrary to the claims of former municipal Acambaro, Guanajuato, Antonio Novoa.
The only crime he allegedly committed Orozco, director of Acambaro Torch , was to allow the publication of exchofer an interview with the mayor in which he accused his former chief of diverting public resources, as well as having had sexual relations with important public figures are male. Angry, Novoa took hold of the backward and authoritarian Press Law of the State of Guanajuato to demand criminal charges against Orozco and for moral damages and force you to make a journey of nearly three years for the different rooms of local and federal justice.
The decision of the Supreme Court in this case is a good omen for other similar suits, as in the case of Eduardo Huchim, Miguel Badillo, Lydia Cacho and many other journalists who are currently in the litigation process. Currently, there are a number of cases in the country where public authorities seek to silence journalists through judicial harassment.
But the interpretation criteria developed by the Minister Cossío in its draft resolution are even more important than the sense of failure of the First Chamber in this case. The project states bluntly that public servants simply do not have the same right to privacy or the privacy that the ordinary citizen. "Democracy requires constant awareness and scrutiny of the actions and omissions of state officials ... the critical threshold intensity and debate that should be exposed to people like that were the subject of newspaper article referenced in the analysis is a very high threshold, not easy to transfer on grounds that open the door to the allocation of civil or criminal liability. "
approved bill also notes that officials are more likely to publicly defend their fellow citizens. His position of power were "given to those who consider themselves affected by certain information or opinions about possibilities of access to media and respond to expressions or information that involve far above those usually have average citizens." Our leaders, in short, have own defense means to reduce the impact it could have some criticism, unfounded or not, published by half.
their argument that public servants should accept greater criticism and even some level of intrusion into his private life that the rest of us, ministers of the First Chamber also supported the proposition that journalists have a special right know and publish information on the activities of public officials. According to the project, the central role of media in building a democracy and accountability that they have justified special freedoms. These criteria involve a fundamental advance in the fight for press freedom in the country.
This case also makes us reflect once more on the claim for Germain Martinez guanajuatizar to Mexico. Cossio draft reveals that the Press Law of Guanajuato is very marked deficiencies at criminalize attacks on the moral and criminal offenses, have a very general wording of these types of crimes, which can be applied to almost any reporter at any time and extend liability beyond who does some said, to include journalists collect information and media directors who decide to share it.
While recognizing the significance of this ruling, only a first step toward building a new system of press freedom in our country. Missing the First Chamber and eventually the Supreme Court's full ratify these criteria in future resolutions in order to generate a law-binding on the subject. Would also be required to demand that members of the state of Guanajuato and other states with similar laws, reform radically their press laws.
Finally, the justices of the Supreme Court would be wrong not to comply themselves with the spirit of its own resolution. Urge the Supreme Court's established already a fully independent and autonomous body to review requests for access to public information and opens a frank to the control of the Congress and the Supreme Audit of the Federation.
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