A court in Barcelona He has rejected suspend the publication of ‘Hate‘, The book on the murderer José Breton that Anagrama will publish and that has raised a great controversy for the contrast between the right to the dignity of the victims and the freedom of the press, which in democracy is almost sacred. “Almost”, because there is some exception. Specifically, the only case of a forbidden book in Spain in democracy is a comic, a satire of deep nihilism, and even disturbing today.
Dozens of red lines. ‘Hitler = SS’, the work of the cartoonist Vuillemin and the Gourio screenwriter, is a milestone in editorial history in our country. It was originally edited by the wild French satirical magazine ‘Hara-Kiri‘(predecessor of’ Charlie Hebdo ‘) In 1987. It was a compilation of comics about Jewish extermination in the concentration camps: wild and impudent, the painfully feast trace of Vuillemin converted the comic into an extremely uncomfortable experience, and that did not prisoners. Nazis and Jews are portrayed with absolutely ruthless, Chabacano and looking for controversy. That is, completely punk and underground.
Prohibited in France. The humorous and provocative content of the comic is clear with the warning with which it starts: “All similar to the six million people who never existed is merely casual.” From its same appearance in France, The distribution was kidnapped by order of the Minister of Interior. Several Jewish associations protested against the album, which suffered three judicial demands, of which he lost two. In 1989 the authors were sentenced to pay a Franco as a symbolic fine, but the reissue in France is prohibited.
Prohibited in Spain. Here the comic was edited by the Makoki publishing house, name that to the fans of the Spanish underground comic It will be familiarand that he was in a new stage in the mid -1990s after his golden years. The plaintiffs were two Jewish associations, B’nai b’rith and Mauthausen Amicale: ‘Hitler = SS’ was accused of attacking the dignity of prisoners and attacking Judaism. In 1995, the Constitutional Court made the decision to prohibit it because it considers that its objective was to humiliate the Jews. The plates and the copies of the album were destroyed, the editor was sentenced to a month and a day of arrest and 100,000 pesetas of fine.
The sentence. In Spain, the Constitutional affirmed In his sentence That “every vignette – word and drawing – is aggressive on its own, with a rough and rude message, in short, oblivious to good taste, even when it does not correspond to tertiary in this issue, which is brought here as an external sign of its offensive mood.” It was said that in the album “it beats a pejorative concept of an entire people, the Jew, for their ethnic features and beliefs. A racist attitude, contrary to the set of constitutionally protected values.”
And above all, it was said that the comic was aimed at minors, which had to be protected from a publication that sought “deliberately and unscrupulously the vilipendium of the Jewish people, with contempt of their qualities to achieve dismembrance in the consideration of others, determining element of infamy or dishonor.” A outdated interpretation of a phenomenon, the comic for adults, which at that time has been operating in Spain.
Kidnapped books. ‘Hitler = SS’ is a unique case being a forbidden comic, as we say a unique circumstance in democracy, since it would make a reissue of it criminally. But there have been cases of temporarily kidnapped books until the resolution of judicial processes, or definitive kidnappings but have not made the content of the book illegal, which could be reissued. These have been the cases:
- In 2018 a judge of Collado Villalba prohibited the impression and marketing of the book Fariña of Nacho Carretero. The cause: a demand from the former or Grove, José Alfredo Bea Gondar, for violation of honor. Was A precautionary measure Until the trial was held, which finally acquitted Carretero and what Volume sales were multiplied.
- Luque Historical Studies: In 1991, the City of Luque (Córdoba) published this book on the Civil War. An individual whose relative appeared in him as the author of a murder denounced the book. A court opened proceedings and confiscated the copies in circulation.
- Those years: In 1993, a judge from Murcia ordered the kidnapping of this book of former General Secretary of the Government Presidency, Julio Feo. The complaint came from María José Alemán, former part of the then mayor of Murcia, who was insulted by its content.
- What happened in Alcàsser?: The father of one of the dead girls in Alcàsser in 1992 never believed in the official resolution of the case. Published this book that included theories with films SNUFF and senior government positions. The book withdrew by demand from the mother of another girls, who considered that the right to privacy of her and her daughter had been violated.
- OT, the hidden face: In 2005 all the copies of this Wayne Jamison book about the talent show were kidnapped at the request of the Gestmusic producer.
- I also know how to play my mouth. Sabina in living flesh: The biography of 2006 of the musician, co-written by the Canretant and Javier Fernández Flores was suspended by a conflict for the ownership of the rights of this book, that the Random House-Mondadori publisher considered that they were his.
Besides, there has been innumerable cases of magazines Withdrawal of kiosks by judicial processes or when censorship still was at the beginning of the transition. They are often removed by the publishing house itself to avoid precisely judicial procedures or image damage. This is what happened with ‘Thursday’ In 2007 with the famous cartoons of Guillermo and Fontdevila of the then heir to the crown and his wife: the authors were fined, but the publication was not redistributed after the preventive kidnapping by express desire of the editorial.
In Xataka | The kidnapping of a book in the era of the ebook: the Fariña case and what Amazon has done with Kindle
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