My First Amendment Case

In 2017 I published several articles about nepotism and irregularities in the Embassy of Spain. After this, one of the public directors involved was terminated, but there was another consequence. The relatives of two ex-ministers involved in the case sued me for defamation. They asked me for more than $5 million.

In the US, the costs of legal proceedings are enormous and, even if you win, you do not always get back the costs, so a lawsuit can be used to silence a journalist. Luckily, there are organizations like RCFP willing to defend press freedom.

The list of achievements of this organization is huge. Among other milestones, they have fought against the US administration in favor of transparency, they have faced Trump, and they were involved in the recent case of CNN against the White House.

First Amendment, Newseum, in Washington, D.C.

They did not care that I was not American or that my information was in Spanish. They worked tirelessly and gave me a team with lawyers specializing in press freedom. The judicial process was long but we won.

 The judge acknowledged that what was published in my articles were "true and verifiable". Then, another battle began to recover the costs, more than $100,000, which the plaintiff ended up paying almost in full.

Organizations like RCFP remind us that the US is much more than just its current administration or its most recent social issue. In this country, in the face of any attack on their freedoms, there is always someone in its civil society willing to fight. In my case it was RCFP. Thank you.