Mapping the Criminalization of LatAm Defamation: Laws That Affect Freedom of Expression Teresa Mioli and Carolina Peredo - Journalism in the Americas
go to original December 9, 2014

A country-by-country map outlining punishments for defamation across the Americas. Information compiled from OAS, IFEX, UNESCO, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Freedom House, together with local media. Click on each country for more information.

• RED: Countries where defamation is in the criminal code and journalists are subject to prison sentences.
• YELLOW: Countries in the process of eliminating prison sentences, but where defamation is still regulated by the criminal code.
• GREEN: Countries where defamation is regulated by its civil code.

“There is criminalization of expression [in the Americas],” said Edison Lanza, the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Organization of American States (OAS) when consulted by the press shortly after being elected. The Uruguayan journalist and lawyer was referencing the organization’s concerns about the use of criminal law rather than civil law to punish cases of defamation, including calumny, and injury.

According to Lanza, the use of criminal law in these cases has had the effect of “criminalizing the dissemination of information that should be public, especially by public officials.”

A survey carried out by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas found that there are four Latin American countries – Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Brazil – where acts of defamation are still prone to criminal prosecution.  In 14 countries, partial decriminalization efforts are currently under way, and in three countries – Mexico, Argentina, and El Salvador – defamation has been fully decriminalized.

Among human rights and freedom of expression watchdogs in the Americas, there exists a general concern that criminalizing offensive expressions, primarily those directed at public officials, has the effect of limiting freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and the right to information.

In 2002, the OAS made a call for countries with standing criminal defamation laws to replace them with civil laws, arguing that countries will still be able to provide adequate redress in cases of defamation. Catalina Botero, who served as Special Rapporteur before Lanza, has noted that one of the main problems with criminal defamation laws remains the “abuse of power by some states to criminalize journalists and selectively punish critical media.”

Read the rest at Journalism in the Americas

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