The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) unanimously condemned the Chilean State for seriously violating the right of free expression and thought of lawyer Carlos Baraona Bray. The foregoing, according to the professional, generates jurisprudence and values freedom of expression over the right to honor, since the subject matter is of public interest, he explained to ABSTRACT.
By Juan Contreras Jara
On February 28, the president of the IACHR, Ricardo Pérez, notified the Chilean State of the sentence against him for the violation of the right to freedom of expression. This, due to the appeals of the environmental lawyer, Carlos Baraona Bray, who, due to lack of justice in Chile, had to escalate to international instances, seeking to challenge a sentence against him issued in 2004 for libel.
In conversation with SUMMARY, the environmental lawyer, Carlos Baraona Bray, explained that, “many times the courts accept complaints for injuries that have a fairly soapy classification, because there is no clear conduct and it is always subject to the judge’s mood.”
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According to the defender, in the sentence against the Chilean State, which also contemplates the violation of the principle of legality and judicial protection, “the IACHR seeks to favor freedom of expression over honor, with respect to those cases in which officials are involved therefore, it is subject to superior scrutiny. In other words, no one has to be publishing my sexual, political, religious preferences, whatever, but if I am a public official, people have every right to be informed, even more so when the conduct is related to the public sphere. ».
This assessment by the IACHR, regarding freedom of expression and the right of society to be informed, reaffirms the idea that “the criminal route cannot be used, because that, rightly, generates fear, an obligatory silence of the media and people who could contribute to the public discussion”.
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According to the environmental lawyer, with the sentence against the State of Chile for seriously violating the right to free expression, a jurisprudence is generated that would oblige the courts, from now on, “to that this type of complaints should be declared inadmissible”. .
Baraona remembers the sentence against the former director of RESUMEN, Felipe Soto Cortes, as the last case in Chile in which a person was sentenced for the crime of insults, when the information expressed was of an absolutely public nature.
Following the complaint filed by Rodrigo Daroch, director of the Bío Bío Fisheries and Aquaculture Unit, for the crime of insults, Soto Cortes was sentenced on January 18 by the Concepción Guarantee Court to 61 days in prison, sentence commuted. to probation for one year, and to pay a fine of 680,000 pesos.
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In this line, the professional explains that, “in the case of the sentence, the judge has an obsolete vision, prior to the incorporation of international law into national legislation, the pact of San José de Costa Rica, did not take this into account He doesn’t even mention it. She recognizes, in her mind, that feeling offended is something that would be subject, not only to objective honor, but also subjective. It is enough for a criminal to feel affected, so that the crime of insults is already configured, at the discretion of the judge on duty, is very strange ».
It should be noted that, with the IACHR’s conviction, the Chilean State will have to train all its officials on the right to free expression and the limitations of criminal proceedings against questioning their public activity.
«Insult can be used to remove circulation, to silence. The idea is that freedom of expression prevails and this type of complaints remain in the past, “concluded Carlos Baraona Bray.
