Censorship in Spain involves the suppression of speech or public communication and raises issues of freedom of speech. The

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

Reporters Without Borders, on its 2020 report, placed the country in the 29 out of 180 position with respect its level of freedom of the press. It cited the Law on Citizen Security, also known as the Gag Law, as one of the main obstacles to freedom of speech.

History

Spanish Inquisition

Francoism

Basque nationalism

Some media linked to

Basque nationalism Basque nationalism ( eu, eusko abertzaletasuna ; es, nacionalismo vasco; french: nationalisme basque) is a form of nationalism that asserts that Basques, an ethnic group indigenous to the western Pyrenees, are a nation and promotes the poli ...

, in particular some linked to the

abertzale left Abertzale left ( eu, Ezker abertzalea, es, Izquierda abertzale; ) is a term used to refer to the parties or organizations of the Basque nationalist/separatist left, stretching from democratic socialism to communism. This leftist character is hi ...

, have been object of censorship. During the decade of 1990, the

national police National Police may refer to the national police forces of several countries: *Afghanistan: Afghan National Police *Haiti: Haitian National Police *Colombia: National Police of Colombia *Cuba: Cuban National Police *East Timor: National Police of ...

investigated the alleged relation between the basque newspaper '' Egin'' and the armed group

ETA Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...

. The newspaper closed in 1998 by order of the judge

Baltasar Garzón Baltasar Garzón Real (; born 26 October 1955) is a former Spanish judge. Garzón formerly served on Spain's central criminal court, the ''Audiencia Nacional'', and was the examining magistrate of the ''Juzgado Central de Instrucción No. 5'', ...

. In 2009, the court resolved that the activity of the newspaper was legal. However, after 11 years of closure, the newspaper could not open again. After the closure of ''Egin'', one of its journalist, Pepe Rei, continued his work in the '' Ardi Beltza'' magazine, which in 2001 was closed by order of

too. This order was later revoked. In 2003,

Juan del Olmo Juan del Olmo (born 1958) is a Spanish judge in the 2004 Madrid train bombings case. In 2003, he ordered that the ''Euskaldunon Egunkaria'' newspaper be closed on grounds of accusations driven by a "narrow and erroneous view according to which every ...

, judge of the

Audiencia Nacional The Audiencia Nacional (; en, National Court) is a centralised court in Spain with jurisdiction over all of the Spanish territory. It is specialised in a certain scope of delinquency, having original jurisdiction over major crimes such as those ...

, orderer the temporary closure the newspaper '' Egunkaria'' during six month, and the embargo of all its property, with an accusation of being part of a business conglomerate controlled by

. The closure order was repeatedly extended during seven years, until all accused were absolved in 2010. In January 2011, the

ordered the closure of the website '' Apurtu.org''. In 2013 the case was dismissed but the website never opened again. One of the arrested during the case, Miguel Ángel Llamas, spent 18 months in prison without a trial. One month before the dismissal of the case, the

ordered the closure of the website '' Ateak Ireki'', considering it the successor of ''Apurtu.org''. After the dismissal of the Apurtu.org, the precautionary measures against ''Ateak Ireki'' remained. In order to avoid a long legal process to open ''Ateak Ireki'', a new project was

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

to open a new online media project. The result of it was the news portal Ahotsa.info. In 2013, the Audiencia Nacional closed a local online

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

Burlada Burlada ( eu, Burlata) is a municipality in Navarre province, Spain on the outskirts of the city of Pamplona Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Nava ...

, ''BurtlataHerria'', accusing the administrator of apology of terrorism. A year later he was absolved, but the website did not open again. In 2013, Eloy Velasco, judge of the Audiencia Nacional, presented criminal charges for apology of terrorism against seven member of the youth organization Ernai and ordered the closure of their website. The judge also ordered '' Topatu'' to take down videos of their press coverage of a festival organized by Ernai, considering it apology for terrorism too. ''Topatu'' took the videos down and three of its journalists were called as witnesses in court.

Insults to the Crown

Insults to the Crown (The king and royal family as institution representative of the whole nation) are a criminal offense in Spain, according to articles 490.3 and 491 of the Spanish Criminal Code.Ley Orgánica 10/1995 de 23 de noviembre del Código Penal.
/ref> This crime is controversial amongst different political forces. Some of the processed for this crime are the satirical magazine ''

El Jueves (Spanish for "''Thursday''") is a Spanish weekly satirical magazine based in Barcelona. Throughout most of its life, ''El Juevess masthead has featured the tagline "" ("''the magazine that comes out on Wednesdays''"). Its mascot is a nameless ...

'',La Audiencia prohíbe la venta del último número de 'El Jueves' por un presunto delito de injurias a la Corona
/ref> the newspapers '' Deia'' and ''

Gara ''Gara'' (Basque: ''We Are'') is a bilingual (Basque/Spanish) newspaper published in the city of Donostia-San Sebastián in the Basque Autonomous Community. The newspaper's target market comprises the area of the Basque Country, but its cir ...

'', the magazine '' Punto y Hora de Euskal Herria'', politicians of the United Left party, the

, the left

Catalan independence movement The Catalan independence movement ( ca, independentisme català; Spanish: ''independentismo catalán'') is a social and political movement (with roots in Catalan nationalism) which seeks the independence of Catalonia from Spain. The beginnings ...

and music bands.

Law on Citizen Security of 2015

The Organic Law 4/2015, 30 March, of the protection of citizen security, also known as the Gag Law, is an organic law, that entered into force on 1 July 2015, replacing the previous law known as the Corcuera Law. The law restricted public demonstrations by placing restrictions on where and when protests can take place, as well as fines of up to €30,000 for violations of this law.

2017 Catalan independence referendum

During the days before the

2017 Catalan independence referendum An independence referendum was held on 1 October 2017 in the Autonomous communities of Spain, Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, passed by the Parliament of Catalonia as the Law on the Referendum on Self-determination of Catalonia and cal ...

, the Civil Guard closed the official website of the referendum by order of the

High Court of Justice of Catalonia The High Court of Justice of Catalonia ( ca, Tribunal Superior de Justícia de Catalunya, TSJC) is the highest body and last judicial instance of the Spanish judiciary in Catalonia. Unlike the Parliament of Catalonia (legislative branch) or the ...

. It also closed or blocked multiple alternative domains, official and non official. It blocked the main gateway of the

InterPlanetary File System The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a protocol, hypermedia and file sharing peer-to-peer network for storing and sharing data in a distributed file system. IPFS uses content-addressing to uniquely identify each file in a global namespace ...

(IPFS), ''gateway.ipfs.io'', which was being used to access the blocked websites. On 20 September the Civil Guard entered the headquarters of the Fundació puntCat, which administers the

top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in ...

.cat .cat (pronounced in Catalan: ''punt cat'' ) is a sponsored top-level domain intended to be used to highlight the Catalan language. Its policy has been developed by ICANN anFundació puntCAT It was approved in September 2005. History Before . ...

, and arrested the director of IT, Pep Masoliver. The

Internet Society The Internet Society (ISOC) is an American nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1992 with local chapters around the world. Its mission is "to promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people ...

and the Electronic Frontier Foundation denounced the mandate for domain name registrars to exercise

Internet censorship Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains (such as Wikipedia.org) but exceptionally may extend to all Int ...

tasks. By 27 September, more than 140 websites related to the referendum were blocked. On 11 October, the official website of the

Assemblea Nacional Catalana The Assemblea Nacional Catalana ("Catalan National Assembly"; ANC by its Catalan acronym) is an organization that seeks the political independence of Catalonia from Spain. It also promotes the independence of other Catalan-speaking regions, whic ...

organization, ''assemblea.cat'', was blocked.

Other cases

In 2000, the

Spanish Data Protection Agency The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD, es, Agencia Española de Protección de Datos) is an independent agency of the government of Spain which oversees the compliance with the legal provisions on the protection of personal data. The agency ...

initiated a process against the Association Against Torture. This association published annual reports on torture cases in Spain and published them in their website, hosted by Nodo50. The website closed to avoid a fine of up to 100 millions of pesetas for publishing the names of police agents and prison officials denounced for torture cases. Despite the closure, multiple websites hosted in other countries replicated the content, which remains accessible.

References

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