The National Action Party (PAN) filed a constitutional challenge before the Federal Judiciary against the censorship law in Puebla, promoted by Morena representatives and supported by Governor Alejandro Armenta. This law, which punishes insults on social media with up to three years in prison, is punishable by up to three years in prison.
Accompanied by PAN leaders and members of Puebla’s civil society, Jorge Romero Herrera, the national leader of the PAN, explained that Article 480 of the state’s Penal Code contradicts Article 6 of the Constitution, which establishes that “the expression of ideas shall not be subject to any judicial or administrative inquisition.” Therefore, he said, it is necessary to repeal it given the threat it poses to the right to freedom of expression.
Dr. Luis Enrique Sánchez, from the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), warned that the challenged article “does not protect victims; it protects power from criticism. With its ambiguity, it reintroduces through the back door a concept already defeated by the Court itself: criminal defamation,” and has generated public rejection. Evidence of this, he indicated, is the 8,500 signatures of citizens demanding its repeal.
Meanwhile, Mario Riestra Piña, leader of the PAN in Puebla, criticized the fact that legislators did not take into account the opinions of the public, specialists, and various legislative groups before the approval and entry into force of the ordinance, but rather only afterward, once alarms were raised about the risk it posed to freedom of expression and the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) itself announced it would challenge it through a constitutional action.
Finally, Jorge Romero affirmed that the unconstitutionality action against the censorship law will be the first test for the new Judiciary, particularly for the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, which will be responsible for resolving the legal challenge.
“We are attentive to how they act, because people are defined by our actions. When this unconstitutionality action reaches the Supreme Court, the entire country will be attentive to the new Judiciary,” he said.
Source: elfinanciero
