Free Speech Under Attack in Spain

Protests in support of a jailed Catalan rapper have recently descended into violence, with police and demonstrators clashing in Spain's main cities.  The protests erupted a day after Pablo Hasél was jailed for tweets insulting police and the Spanish monarchy.  Thousands of protesters in Madrid and Barcelona were met by riot police carrying batons and shields.  Dozens have been arrested, including at least 14 in Madrid and 29 in Barcelona, police said.

The rapper faces nine months in prison on a charge of "glorifying terrorism" and slandering the crown in tweets and song lyrics.  The case of Hasél (known for his radical leftist views) has reignited a debate about free speech in Spain. 

In recent years, the government of Spain has been cracking down on free speech in much the same way as authoritarian governments across the globe-- making speech critical of the government and/or the monarchy a criminal offense.  These laws are written so vaguely as to allow the government to bring criminal charges against any artists and social media users they don't like in an effort to quell protest and free speech.

In addition to attacks on the monarchy, Pablo Hasél's tweets and lyrics have also accused police of torturing and killing demonstrators and migrants. In his lyrics, Hasel has expressed support for Victoria Gómez, a jailed member of the banned Marxist group Grapo. Elsewhere he accused King Felipe VI and his father Juan Carlos, the former king, of several crimes. 

Other performers and bloggers have fallen foul of the criminal offense of "glorifying terrorism", which is framed so broadly that any example of justifying a terrorist act, even if it took place a long time ago, can lead to a conviction.

In 2018 the rapper Valtònyc was sentenced to 3 and a half years in prison after "promising bullets" for right-wing politicians and a noose for the king.  The year before, Twitter user Cassandra Vera had been sentenced to prison for merely making jokes about the 1973 assassination of General Franco's lieutenant Luis Carrero Blanco by Basque militants, although she was acquitted on appeal.

In 2017, César Strawberry  received a one-year jail sentence for some humorous Twitter posts - one suggested giving the king a "cake-bomb" for his birthday.  At the time, Strawberry told the press,  "It's a co-ordinated strategy aimed at making people scared of speaking out, of expressing themselves and at cutting back a system of freedoms.  Sadly, in Spain the government has embarked on a path which seeks to copy Turkey, rather than France, Germany, Britain or Sweden."

In December 2017, twelve members of the rap group Insurgencia each received two-year jail terms, for "glorifying terrorism" in one of their songs.  During their trial, prosecutors said that the group “maintains a subversive tone against the constitutional order”.  Government prosecutors also claimed that “the defendants have a religion that is the labor union which says the exploitation of the oppressed deserves an armed struggle.”

In that same year, Cassandra Vera, a 22-year old student, received a one year jail sentence for “humiliating” the victims of terrorism by also making jokes on Twitter about Luis Carrero Blanco, who was killed 44 years ago by an ETA bomb that lifted his car 20 meters into the sky. “Not only did ETA have a policy about official cars, they also had a space program,” she joked. The sentence resulted in the loss of her university scholarship and disqualified her from employment in the public sector for seven years.

The rash of cases spawned the hashtag #RapearNoEsDelito ('rapping isn't a crime') on Twitter and sparked a debate about the limits of freedom of speech in Spain.  "The countries of the world can be divided into two," says the editor of El Diario newspaper, Ignacio Escolar.  "Those where slander and insult are punished with a fine or with compensation for those affected; and those where what you write or say can land you in prison."

“Sending rappers to jail for song lyrics and outlawing political satire demonstrates how narrow the boundaries of acceptable online speech have become in Spain,” said Esteban Beltrán, Director of Amnesty International Spain.  “People should not face criminal prosecution simply for saying, tweeting or singing something that might be distasteful or shocking. Spain’s broad and vaguely-worded law is resulting in the silencing of free speech and the crushing of artistic expression.”