Vito Quiles, David Alandete, and when 'freedom of speech' meant praising ETA

Legal scholars and intellectuals have written extensively about what freedom of expression is and what its limits are for decades.

After fining people for praying, Sánchez and his partners will legalize the glorification of terrorism
Pedro Sánchez attacks the right to privacy and compares using a social network with buying a gun

Lately, and distancing itself from these complex definitions, the Spanish left seems to have embraced a simpler idea: freedom of expression is everything the left says and nothing the right says. Perhaps some people think I'm exaggerating. Let's remember: four years ago, the left decided to classify the mere act of praying near an abortion center as "harassment," even though prayer is not an act of violence.

This very week, from RTVE (a media outlet paid for by all Spaniards), the left is waging a smear campaign against a pro-life shelter, claiming that the people working there "harass and stalk women" for the mere fact of offering information to mothers who are going to have an abortion and help to those who want to give birth to their children instead of killing them.

These very days, the government is launching a campaign of attacks against a Spanish journalist, David Alandete, Abc correspondent in Washington DC, for the mere fact of asking about Spain in the White House. A few days ago, the Madrid Press Association already came out in defense of Alandete against the attacks by Minister Óscar Puente, who is using his position of power to try to intimidate a journalism professional who is doing his job.

These attacks from the left against freedom of expression are not isolated incidents. A few months ago, Sánchez announced an initiative to control social media, going so far as to compare using one of these networks with buying a gun. That's not the only thing the government wants to control. In May, Sánchez announced measures to control journalists, amid a campaign of government attacks on independent media outlets investigating and exposing socialist corruption scandals.

This left-wing offensive against freedom of expression resulted last week in an act of bullying in Barcelona to censor a conference by journalist Vito Quiles at a public university, for the mere fact that he is a communicator annoying to the left. This Wednesday Quiles' attack on freedom of expression was repeated at the University of Granada, a new display of bullying that in this case has been cheered on by RTVE, which has become the great battering ram of the most authoritarian left against free journalism and freedom of expression in Spain.

Things change when we talk about the left. Ten years ago, the Supreme Court convicted communist activist Pablo Hasel of glorifying terrorism, through songs that praised far-left criminal groups such as ETA and GRAPO. The left launched a disinformation campaign to defend the activist, which culminated a few years later in an initiative by the far-left, supported by the PSOE, to legalize the glorification of terrorism, claiming that it is "freedom of expression." It is the same government that comes allowing hundreds of tributes to ETA murderers, acts that are a clear humiliation for their victims and an insult to human dignity.

So the idea is clear: for the left, "freedom of expression" means praising ETA and paying homage to ETA murderers, nauseating acts that have even received parliamentary support from socialists and communists, but freedom of expression does not mean praying or asking questions that are uncomfortable for the left, or supporting political positions that question the dogmas of socialists and communists on issues such as immigration, abortion, or feminism. In short, they are leading us towards a dictatorship of single thought in which only the left will be able to speak and the rest of us will have to keep quiet. Honestly, they can just wait for millions of Spaniards to allow ourselves to be subjugated in this way by apprentice dictators like the ones we have right now in the government of Spain.

---

Photo: Vito Quiles.