Argentina
Government ends prison terms for defamationPosted Nov 11 2009
Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies passed a bill eliminating prison sentences for libel and slander offenses. The bill, which was supported by the President, was passed in response to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) order for the state to reform laws that threatened freedom of expression.
According to the IPI, “the executive branch introduced the proposal to reform the criminal offences of calumnies e injuries (slander and insult) …, in response to a 2008 IACHR ruling that overturned the conviction of independent journalist Eduardo Kimel for criminal defamation.”
Kimel was sentenced to one year in jail and fined $20,000 in 2000 for criticizing a judge’s treatment of an investigation into the 1976 slaying of five priests. Kimel criticized the judge in a small paragraph in his 1989 book, El Masacre de San Patricio.
The new bill eliminates possible prison terms, which previously were a maximum of three years and reduces maximum fines to 30,000 Argentine pesos. Argentina’s Senate has yet to vote on the bill. According to the IPI, Brazil and Uruguay partially decriminalized defamation this year as well.