Peru’s Fifth Constitutional Court has issued a ruling that «consents» to the judgment that found Google responsible for violating the freedom of expression of journalist Marco Sifuentes of the digital news outlet La Encerrona. This, after the platform did not appeal the ruling that upheld the lawsuit against the company for removing journalistic content from its YouTube account.
The deadline for Google to appeal the ruling against it for restricting the freedom of expression of Peruvian journalist Marco Sifuentes expired and the latter had not not appealed, so the 5th Constitutional Court ordered “the cessation of the infringement and urges Google not to repeat the offense.”
The ruling had determined that the elimination and subsequent restriction of access, through indirect means, to a news program about public officials on the YouTube channel of La Encerrona, constituted an illegitimate violation of the right to freedom of expression in both its individual and social dimensions.
The Court considered that not only the right to disseminate content of public interest was violated, but also the right to guarantee that the content reached the greatest number of people, affecting the fundamental right of society to “seek, receive and disseminate information.”
Although Google reinstated the video after being notified of the lawsuit, the ruling determined that the company violated freedom of expression by temporarily restricting the content. The ruling also questioned the subsequent access restrictions, since, once restored, the video was only accessible through a direct link, but not through the YouTube search engine.
The Arbizu & Gamarra law firm, responsible for the defensewith the support and accompaniment of OBSERVACOM, maintained that this is an “unprecedented ruling in defense of freedom of expression,” which represents “a reaffirmation of the importance of freedom of the press in the digital context.” “The decision establishes that Google must guarantee the free circulation of informative content and avoid undue censorship,” they stated.
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