59 a Naval Court searched the premises of “Ateli Limitada” publishing company and Mr. Palamara’s home to seize the copies of the book, the originals, a diskette containing the full text, the electrostatic masters of the publication and to erase the complete text of the book from the hard disk of his personal computer, and Chilean courts ordered the banning of the publication and distribution of the book entitled “Ética y Servicios de Inteligencia” (“Ethics and Intelligence Services”). The aforesaid article only provides for prior censorship on the basis of moral protection of children and adolescents in relation to public entertainments or upon a declaration of a state of emergency, which is not the case here. In addition “the expert reports required by the State concluded that the information contained in the book could be readily accessible via other means;” b) the prohibition of prior censorship encompasses “the prohibition of any act that prevents the distribution of an existing book;” c) the offense of contempt of authority is incompatible with Article 13 of the Convention. The conviction of Mr. Palamara-Iribarne for this offense, “grounded on his criticism of public officials’ conduct,” “constitutes an imposition of subsequent liability on the exercise of the freedom of expression that is unnecessary” in a democratic society; d) contempt laws provide more protection to public officials than to private citizens, in direct violation of the fundamental principle of any democratic system, which provides for public scrutiny as a means to prevent and control any abuse of their coercive power. Said laws are a means to silence unpopular ideas and opinions and discourage criticism for fear of legal action or monetary penalties; e) the mere threat of criminal prosecution for making negative remarks about matters of public interest may lead to self-censorship. Defending against criminal charges involves significant costs for the defendant and may entail the imposition of restrictions on rights. The potential imposition of a criminal sanction for criticizing a public official has or may have an intimidating effect. In Chile, said offense carries the threat of imprisonment or fines for those convicted; f) in 2001, Chile abolished the offense of contempt defined in section 6 of the Ley de Seguridad del Estado (State Security Law). In August 2005, Chile enacted Law No. 20,048 which eliminated the offense of contempt “only for the purposes of the Criminal Code and not of the Code of Military Justice.” Mr. Palamara-Iribarne must be fully compensated for the damage sustained. In this regard, the Commission stated that “it ha[d] no specific comments to raise” and that “it shared the comments made by the representatives of the [alleged] victim;” g) in convicting Mr. Palamara of contempt, the State applied provisions of the Chilean Criminal Code, in violation of the standards and parameters set by the Convention as well as by the case law of the Inter-American system. h) Article 2 of the Convention also sets forth that States undertake to “adopt