The Constitutional Court says that "insulting" the Spanish flag is outside freedom of expression
- The insult to the Spanish flag does not protect the right to freedom of expression, as decided this Tuesday by the Spanish Constitutional Court. The decision was adopted with six votes in favour and five against and four abstentions.
The plenary session of the Constitutional Court announced on 15 December, with six votes in favour and five against, that the "insult" to the Spanish flag does not protect the right to freedom of expression.
With this decision, the judges have dismissed the appeal brought by a trade union representative against the judgment given by a criminal court and the Provincial Court of a Coruña.Por this crime the appellant was sentenced to a fine of 1,260 euros.
It all started on October 30, 2014, according to the Galician newspaper Nos: In a concentration before the military arsenal of Ferrol (Galicia), the representative of the Interunion Confederation of Galicia took over the megaphone and yelled that "the puta flag should be burned". The concentration, in which no Spanish flag was burned, imposed on the trade unionist Pablo Fragoso the fine quoted for the protest demonstrations.
The concentration had nothing to do with national flags, but with the protest of the workers in the cleaning service of military installations who did not charge salaries. This situation has been decisive for the court, which has ratified the sanction for having nothing to do with the congregations’ demands, considering that the challenge of the Spanish flag in this context is outside freedom of expression.
Steilas considers out of place the effort of the Rectorate of the UPV/EHU to prevent the participation of a person through a communication at the congress on Sovereignty(s) held recently in our university. We do not understand the attempt to obstruct the academic activity of a... [+]
