Don’t defame the Spanish royals!
by Ben Curtis
We were surprised on our recent trip to Thailand to see how much the Royal family are revered - so much so that on Mondays around half the population wear yellow t-shirts in honour of the king. What’s more, saying, printing, acting etc in any way that is defamatory to the Royal family can lead to serious trouble (a Swiss man was briefly jailed recently for drunkenly spray painting graffiti on pictures of the king, youtube is banned in Thailand for hosting a defamatory video about the king).
Well, it appears that every now and again similar measures can be applied to the press in Spain should they step out of line with their highnessess. Here is this weeks link:
“Royal romp cartoon lands Spanish magazine in trouble” - Yup, problems for El Jueves, who are still sporting the banned cover illustration on their site at the time of writing The image can now be seen here (not safe for work…)
Hmmm, what’s the Spanish for “freedom of speech?”
Posted: July 20th, 2007 under Spanish Culture and News.
Comments: 4
Comments
Comment from Edith
Time: July 21, 2007, 7:54 pm
More info here:
http://barrapunto.com/articles/07/07/20/1637259.shtml
Spain is not alone in this: similar censorship laws apply in Holland as far as the Dutch royal family is concerned. Somehow, it seems as if kings and queens still enjoy certain privileges us mere mortals have to do without. Whether the cartoon was inappropriate or not is beside the point here. Why aren’t royal families given an avenue to sue for libel if they feel they have been wronged, like ordinary citizens would do?
A couple of years before his death, Prince Claus of the Netherlands did just that: he sued a tabloid for printing some blatant lies about his family and in the end they had to rectify everything, which was great. Tabloids will print just about everything, including stories which have been entirely made up, and they invade people’s private lives without mercy so I always rejoice when they receive a drubbing. 
BTW, how about those famous Caganets depicting Felipe and Letizia? 
http://www.noticiasdegipuzkoa.com/ediciones/2006/12/09/mirarte/ocio/d09oci80.406722.php
Comment from Steve
Time: July 21, 2007, 8:26 pm
Its just another example of Government being liberty loathers. The pictures are pretty bad taste, but as always people dont need to buy the magazine or look at the El Jueves website
Comment from Gary
Time: July 22, 2007, 3:11 pm
Looks like someone has killed their Domain Name Server as all you get is a Bad Host Name Error….
Comment from ValenciaSon
Time: July 22, 2007, 5:26 pm
I guess they might do a well enough job defaming themselves?
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