The Diplomat
The Board of Directors of the Madrid Press Association (APM), with the support of the Federation of Spanish Journalists’ Associations (FAPE), yesterday urged the government of Pedro Sánchez to support Spanish journalist Ignacio Cembrero, who will face a civil lawsuit brought against him by the Kingdom of Morocco on Friday 13 January in a Madrid court of first instance.
In a statement, the APM considers “unacceptable” the lawsuit filed by the Rabat authorities, after Cembrero published that Morocco could be behind the spying on his mobile phone, since his number is one of the 180 journalists spied on by the Pegasus programme, which affected 50,000 people around the world.
The APM is convinced that Morocco “is trying to intimidate the journalist and prevent him from continuing to denounce the irregularities he observes in that country in the free exercise of his profession”.
In view of this situation, the APM calls on the Spanish authorities to “act through the appropriate channels, including diplomatic channels, to defend the right to freedom of expression of journalists in our country when it is attacked by the leaders of a foreign country”.
“This association regrets to note that, since the presentation of the lawsuit by Morocco became known, the Government has avoided exercising this defence at any level and has responded with evasions to questions posed by several members of Congress”, the statement indicates.
The APM recalls that the European Commission is preparing a directive to prevent the judicial harassment of journalists and activists by multinational companies and foreign states, and that, once approved, the Spanish government will have to transpose it into national legislation.
