By Alejandro Martínez
The Supreme Court in Colombia absolved journalist Luis Agustín González on Tuesday, who had been sentenced to prison for the crime of defamation, reported the daily El Universal.
González, director of newspaper Cundinamarca Democrática, was sentenced in 2012 to 20 months in jail after publishing an editorial criticizing the congressional candidacy of the former governor of the state of Cundinamarca María Leonor Serrano de Camargo. The decision was later upheld by the state's Supreme Court.
However, this week the highest court in the country determined that "as a part of freedom of expression, political opinion freedom has a larger emphasis of protection, precisely for the ends it seeks and the position in which public officials find themselves," reported El Universal.
“When the editorial in question indicated that [the candidate] had an 'arrogant, despotic, capricious, extravagant, and difficult' personality, in no way did this description fit into the specific boundaries that establish dishonorable accusations in Article 220 of Law 559 of 2000," stated the Court.
In an interview with El Colombiano, González said that the decision was “an act of justice in favor of the freedom of expression and opinion, with which national and regional journalism can do its work of monitoring the actions of public servants without reprecussion."
The Foundation for the Freedom of the Press (FLIP in Spanish) also celebrated the decision.
“With this decision, the Supreme Court of Justice creates a very important precedent in the protection of freedom of expression the face of defamation in Colombia. It highlights, once again, the importance of this right for the strengthening of the democracy and public control," stated the organization.
The Court will provide more details on its decision next week, reported El Colombiano.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
