The Supreme Court upheld the inadmissibility of the protection appeal filed by the former president of the Constitutional Convention, Elisa Loncon, against the ex-conventionist Renato Garín and Editorial Catalonia for the use of his image on the cover of the book “El Fracaso, cómo se se incendio la Convención”.
Loncon pointed out that on October 20, he found out via WhatsApp that Garín spread the cover of his future book to a group of former constituents, which on its cover contains an image of himself along with other symbols and the face of the controversial ex-conventionalist Rodrigo Rojas. Vade.
The former president of the body that drafted the constitutional proposal rejected on September 4, adds that due to her participation in the Constituent Convention as head of it, and because she is a Mapuche woman, she has been the victim of a series of attacks which they persist over time. In addition, she considered that the unauthorized use of her image in a book “with a negative connotation” violates her fundamental rights of physical and mental integrity; of honor and privacy; and property.
The use of her image without her consent and given the acts of violence she suffered, would also carry the provisions of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Violence against Women.
For these reasons, Elisa Loncon requested that the respondents cease the dissemination of the cover of the aforementioned book that includes a photograph of her face (on social networks and the media).
However, the Court of Appeals of Santiago declared the protection action inadmissible, considering that “(…) in the presentation no facts have been mentioned that could constitute a violation of the constitutional guarantees indicated in article 20 of the Constitution, reason for which the rule of inadmissibility provided for in the second paragraph of numeral 2 of the Order Agreed of the Supreme Court on the Processing of the Protection Remedy applies, for which reason this arbitration is declared inadmissible.”
Immediately afterwards, the highest Court confirmed the resolution that declared the appeal for protection inadmissible. “Today freedom of expression has triumphed again. The Supreme Court was clear: we defeated censorship,” said the author of the book, also a former congressman Renato Garín.
Garín mentioned that his book has been detained, unable to enter bookstores, due to this “unusual protection appeal presented by Elisa Loncon at the beginning of the month.”
“We had to suspend the presentation, stop sales and change all the time. All this had costs for the Catalonia publishing house, for Filsa and for the booksellers who live from this. Today, finally, the Supreme Court gave us the go-ahead and we can start distributing,” said the former conventional, assuring that the judicial appeal sought to “censor the book, directly and without ambiguity.”
“The strategy to camouflage this was to use Mrs. Loncon’s ‘right to image’ as a legal right affected by the book cover. As was predictable, both the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court rejected the protection appeal. This allows stripping to the censors who are willing to act offended to silence the opponent,” Garín concluded.
“I hope this is the end of the authoritarian plays against me and those close to me,” he closed.
Judgment Court of Appeals by The counter on Scribd
Supreme Court Judgment by The counter on Scribd
