Mar 9, 2011

Justice: A Victory for Free Speech in Mexico - Court revokes suspension of 'Presumed Guilty'

Hurray! A Mexican court rules for freedom of speech. See our original posts on the injunction against the movie, Presumed Guilty and the story that it documents: the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of José Antonio Zúñiga. PBS showed the movie last year. Links to it are available at PBS Point of View

Court revokes suspension of 'Presumed Guilty'

El Universal (original in Spanish)
March 8, 2011
translated by AMB

The documentary "Presumed Guilty" will be shown again in Mexican theaters. An administrative court reversed the injunction against showings that a district judge ordered last Thursday.

The Sixth Collegiate Administrative Tribunal determined that it had to revoke the suspension after considering that, in essence, to suspend the screening of the documentary damages the public interest, contravening the provision of public order and the right to information. By unanimous vote, the judges Clementina Flores Suárez, Margarita Guerrero and Ruben Ema Pedrero considered the right to information applies to a group or institution in its basic role in the proper functioning of a democratic society.

The court stated that this right to information has a dual role which requires not only that individuals cannot be prevented from seeing a work or having the chance to comment freely on it, but also their right to receive information and learn to express their thought has to be respected.

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