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regard to the risks that the typical formulation of contempt may entail to the
freedom of expression. In my opinion added to other judgments of the Court – for
instance, case of Herrera Ulloa—I expressed my points of view, which have not
changed, on the exercise of criticism with regard to civil servants and the less strict
requirement regarding the freedom of expression, if compared with the one which
may appear when individuals are involved. What I want to enhance now is that this
topic must be analyzed under the light –or the shadow- of the specific criminal
formulas, that is to say, in front of “concretions” and not “abstractions.”
21.
In other words, what interests and concerns is not the existence of a certain
legal classification called “contempt” – a nomen juris which may loose several
contents, from acceptable to inadmissible-, but the way in which that criminal
concept influences the freedom of analysis and expression, and also the possibility –
which was not unnoticed by the Court – that undue repression is exercised through a
different criminal definition, as may be the case of the threats. It is also necessary to
notice that criticism legalization does not mean to set aside the old guarantee –
included in several Constitutions- which protects the members of Parliament and the
judges against malicious counterclaims which attack their own capacity of expression
or decision, also important for the democratic system.
Sergio García-Ramírez
Judge
Pablo Saavedra-Alessandri
Secretary
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