A broad set of reforms undertaken in areas such as media transparency or the protection of freedom of expression. The so-called Action Plan for Democracy that the Council of Ministers approves today responds to some long-standing demands of the majority of parliamentary partners and introduces changes in the Gag Law, in the State Secrets Law or in the Penal Code with regard to the protection of freedom of expression, such as the crime of insulting state institutions, one of Sumar’s main demands when negotiating the text with the PSOE within the coalition.
In the text that the Council of Ministers approves today and to which elDiario.es has had access, the government commits, for example, to “addressing a comprehensive reform of the articles of the Penal Code that could affect the right to freedom of expression” and artistic creation, among other cases when it refers to state institutions, whether crimes against religious feelings or public ridicule or other cases, in order to give them a formulation comparable to that of the countries around us and to address the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, on issues of defamation and its legal framework. According to negotiation sources, this would involve addressing, among others, the specific case of insults to the crown.
The plan also includes a broad chapter of measures related to the media. Mainly in terms of financing and transparency. In this way, “the introduction of limits to the financing that public administrations can devote to the media is established, so that there are no media promoted or dependent on public administrations.”
Reference is also made to the “revision of the regulatory framework to guarantee pluralism, avoiding media concentration”, as well as the approval of a national strategy to combat disinformation campaigns. Also related to the media and in the battery of proposals for the “Promotion of a higher quality of public debate”, the reform of Organic Law 1/1982, of May 5, on civil protection of the right to honor, to private and family life and to the image of each person and Organic Law 2/1984, of March 26, regulating the right of rectification, to improve the system of incentives and obtaining rectification of false or openly biased information.
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