Spanish Legion corporal was not ridiculed by El Jueves magazine

THE Supreme Court confirmed that El Jueves magazine did not ridicule a Spanish Legion corporal from the Viator base.

The soldier claimed €30,000 damages from the magazine for breaching “his honour, image and privacy” after his photograph appeared in an El Jueves cartoon in October 2008.

The Almeria High Court’s dismissal of his claim was recently upheld by the Supreme Court. Only the corporal’s torso was used in the photomontage and his face was totally unrecognisable because it was obscured with a clown’s makeup, the court decided.

The cartoon showed the disguised corporal announcing: “Anything to keep Rajoy amused.”

The cartoon referred to Mariano Rajoy – then Leader of the Opposition – who was overheard complaining to party grandee Javier Arenas: “Tomorrow I’ve got the pain in the a-se of a military parade.”

The magazine was not criticising the corporal or the Legion, but Mariano Rajoy, the Supreme Court ruled.  The photograph used for the montage was accessible to the public and the judges concluded that in this instance “freedom of speech took priority of the appellant’s image rights.”