The chief magistrate of Madrid’s No. 29 Investigative Court, who was on duty, agreed to release climate activists and journalists who reported on a protest to “warn global warming” that took place last Saturday at the Prado Museum. Four people, three women and one man, were arrested by state security forces and authorities for their connection with the protest.
They are being investigated under Article 323 of the Criminal Code for allegedly committing a crime against the historical-artistic heritage, according to sources at the High Court of Justice in Madrid. Activists of the environmental organization Futuro Vegetal pressed their hands on the frames of Francisco de Goya’s paintings “La maja Desnuda” and “La maja ropa”, and journalists spread the action for the newspaper. jump.
The Federation of Spanish Associations of Journalists (FAPE) and the Madrid Press Association (APM) believe that journalists can be “complicit” in the events and therefore “have to react” as citizens, reports Europa Press. “They were not arrested for the actions they practiced their profession, therefore, the right to receive information cannot be discussed. The fact that they are journalists does not give them a license to engage in any kind of action, such as, in this case, dishonesty. They expressed themselves as citizens, not as journalists, and as citizens they will have to answer,” FAPE president Miguel Angel Noqueda told Europa Press.
In turn, the APM Board of Directors distinguishes between a journalist’s coverage of an event to which he was summoned or participation in a crime. From this point of view, they are in favor of protecting the freedom of the press of the journalist providing information about the fact. “It is logical that they are called for this. As he was invited, for example, to demonstrate before Congress. We would not accept arresting journalists,” he says.
Source: El Diario
