Remember when we wrote that El Jueves is the Mad Magazine of Spain? Well, it may be, but it has run afoul of a Spanish law banning slander or defamation of the royal family. After tweaking the royal son the cover, the Spanish High Court has ordered all copies of the issue to be seized:
Spain’s High Court has ordered the seizure of all copies of a magazine that carried a cartoon of Crown Prince Felipe and his wife having sex. The cartoon on the front page of the weekly satirical magazine El Jueves depicted Prince Felipe saying sex was the closest he would come to working. It was published after the government announced it would pay couples nearly $3,500 for each new baby born. The high court judge ruled that the cartoon insulted the royal family.
[Thanks to Pepo and El Tio for the tip]
the famous spanish sense of humor!
torquemada way of life!
hystery is too bad, as always. I Just want to know why NO one touches ever about the most relvent aspect of today’s (repeating, today’s) El Jueves.
If is a good magazine, why the ONLY (O-N-L-Y) paid ads they get are from telesex companies?
Two laws have been used to justify this decision. The first one prevents slandering/libel and defamation. As offensive as this cover might be, that in itself is in no way a crime, and I cannot see how portraying these young parents having sex in a satirical cartoon can be considered defamation. The second law is more problematic, as it more or less forbids material considered harmful and derogatory to the monarchic institution. This will of course lead to clashes with freedom of speech: after all, saying that monarchy isn’t necessary at all and should be abolished could be considered derogatory. Then again, I am no lawyer, maybe I am misunderstanding everything, but I think in the end this case will be dismissed.
Frankly, we don’t need these laws. Institutions should be specially prone to public criticism, including satire, and regular laws which protect any citizen should be enough for politics or kings.
Besides, you don’t like people being mean and aggressive with you when you are a public person? Cry me a river, or better, abdicate.
This was a huge story on Euronews yesterday.
This is what is happening in Spain. First, we are funding a family which is not useful at all. Second, they don’t have pay tributes. Third, they don’t have to say in what they are spending our money ! . And finally and the most issue important in my opinion, we have to be very carefull what we say about them (I mean in the media of course).
In my opinion, this is not a case of defamation or such. The problem is that it is unacceptable not to have the media under control. And ‘El jueves’, been established in Barcelona (where a lot of people don’t feel spaniard at all, fighting for the independence of Catalonia) is such media that has allways been a pain in the ass for the political class and the royal family.
This is leading us to a situation where a lot of people is begining to question whether where are free to speak or not. Whe have to learn a lot from near contries like France. More to say that the royal family is not needed. And the royal family is growing (and aging). Let’s see what happends in the future, but I’m hearing a lot of voices asking for the third republic.
In conclusion : the effect has been not the one wanted. All the magazines had been sold. Internet is full about that affaire. I think they will thing twice in the future.
Ha ha! Someone got their feelings hurt! I guess when you write it in spanish, it’s not that funny?
I gees there is not only the Queen, to make fun of it. the Spanish monarque has a lot of fun too
They created http://www.eljueves.us real quick didn’t they?