The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Numerous sources in both the Spanish and English-language media are reporting that cartoonist Guillermo Torres and writer-editor Manel Fontdevila have been found guilty by a judge in Spain of offending the Spanish royal family, with the judge saying they had “vilified the crown in the most gratuitous and unnecessary way.” Regular readers may recall back in the summer the satirical El Jueves magazine published an edition with a cartoon cover showing Crown Prince Felipe having sex with his wife Letizia with a caption reading “if you get pregnant this will be the closest thing I’ve done to work in my whole life”, a reference to a new initiative brought in by the Spanish government whereby couples would be encouraged to have more children with a financial reward, a cover so obviously hurtful and despicable we are forced to show it again here:

(don’t look at it, it will corrupt you and lead to the collapse of decent society)

For some insane reason the Spanish royals are protected against even cartoon barbs – defaming or insulting the royals can potentially carry a prison sentence of up to two years – and the issue was banned, a rather worrying state of affairs when judges can stop a harmless satirical magazine from being read, although this heavy handed tactic backfired on them in an explosion of publicity. With the story going round Spain then the rest of the world it is fair to say that this ludicrous law which gags freedom of speech and the right to criticise pampered elite sections of society has done far more harm to the image of Spain, it’s royal family and judiciary than any cartoon could have, exposing a law which is frankly unbelievable in a modern, democratic European nation. A simple Google search on the cartoonists’ names turns up a large number of pages in various languages showing that if, as the prosecution alleged, the magazine had set out to damage the honour of the prince and the royal family then I am left to wonder if the judiciary and prosecutor will now be charged with the same since their ridiculous over-reaction has effectively inflated the story to global proportions and lead to far more people seeing the supposedly offending image than would have otherwise.

(Manel Fontdevila and Guillermo Torres in court, photo via EFE)

Torres and Fontdevila escaped a jail sentence but were fined 3, 000 Euros each after the state prosecutor demanded an increased fine; Judge José María Vázquez Honrubia added that they could also face 10 months of house arrest should they refuse to pay. In a statement the pair declared “We should not be here for this stupidity. These are things we will do again and which we have done before,” before announcing they planned to appeal the verdict. Journalistic trade unions have offered the two their backing, stating that the Spanish judiciary were effectively impeding the freedom of the press and the freedom of speech.