PG loses lawsuit
Theresa Croes-Fernandez
Amigoe
3/22/2006

ARUBA - Members of Parliament are allowed to criticize the work of the Prosecution Council (OM). Unless well-founded, also the media can comment on alleged abuse.

Yesterday, Attorney General (PG) Theresa Croes-Fernandez lost the lawsuits that she instituted against AVP-members Arthur Dowers and Mike Eman and the newspaper Diario.

With this verdict it is certain that Eman and Dowers and Diario do not have to rectify what they have said about the independency, objectivity, and political influence of the OM. After analyzing what was said during the hearings, the judge indicated that the case is about the freedom of opinion and this can only be restricted if it is legally in the interest of the protection of the reputation or the rights of others, or to maintain the authority and the impartiality of the judicial power. For the freedom of press counts that the media can exaggerate and even provoke. The judge indicated though that the journalists should not insult people personally and should do thorough journalistic investigations. In this case the intentions were not to insult the PG and the comments in the media were in a column, in which the writer has the room to express his/her opinion.

The judge did criticize Diario's lack of investigation though. On the other hand he said that the OM has a press briefing department that could have been involved to contradict the out of court statements.

The judge said furthermore that the Members of Parliament have diplomatic immunity, but that in a democratic society, the discussions took place for an important part outside the Parliament, amongst other in the media. But that doesn't mean that Members of Parliament can say whatever they want, but that the judge must be reserved when prohibiting statements outside the Parliament.