The case was initiated by the ex-marine Julius Caesar Urien, who was imprisoned during the last civic-military dictatorship.
On October 30, 2019, through the channel screen A24Feinmann assured that Urien was “hated in the Argentine Navy, because as a former midshipman the guy killed a corporal in cold blood, when he was an ESMA duty officer he wanted to take her and shot him in the head.”
The episode in question alludes to an event that occurred on November 16, 1972, when, on the eve of Juan Domingo Perón’s return to Argentina, after 17 years of exile, a group of non-commissioned officers, including Urien, took the School of Mechanics.
There was resistance and during the incident Corporal Leonardo Contreras was killed. The rebels were arrested, including Urien, and were released with the May 1973 amnesty. At the time of Contreras’ death, Urien had already been reduced.
“I want to remember that, despite having been imprisoned and later discharged, Nestor (Kirchner) promoted him, a very rare, very rare thing, promoted him two degrees, to frigate lieutenant, and paid him all the fallen salaries of 30 years, “added Feinmann. “It’s very impressive, isn’t it? Well, this guy is one of the advisers to the current president-elect on security and Armed Forces issues,” he added, referring to Alberto Fernandez.
Faced with those sayings, Urien took the driver to court. Judge De la Fuente determined that “a false, extremely serious fact was affirmed, affecting the honor of the complainant, which evidently exceeds all the limits that govern the exercise of the right to information, freedom of the press and the role of the journalist” .
The magistrate remarked that “due to Feinmann’s career, training and quality of lawyer, it is evident that he has not behaved in accordance with the requirements of the legal order (…) which highlights a greater awareness of the crime.”
Later the judge warned that “there is no reason to think that Feinmann had made these statements in the belief that what he said was true.”
During the process, Feinmann affirmed that he did not want to insult Urien “but simply to report facts, protected by his constitutional right to freedom of expression and work.”
However, the sentence specified that the freedom of the press was not in debate “but exclusively the falsely attributed the commission of a homicide” to the complainant.
“It was not limited to issuing critical opinions or value judgments, which may be offensive to third parties or the recipient himself, but rather affirmed an objective fact that does not conform to reality,” the sentence maintains.
De la Fuente cited the Code of Ethics of the Argentine Journalism Forum (Fopea), according to which “journalists must avoid the dissemination, propagation or multiplication of false, erroneous or misrepresented information, refusing to give entity to versions that have not been confirmed by reliable sources “.
Now, in addition to enforcing the ruling, it remains to be seen whether Urien will sue Feinmann for damages.
Source From: Ambito
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