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Article contents
The role of freedom of expression in the construction of historical memory
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2019
Abstract
The construction of historical memory is closely linked to the guarantees provided by the right to freedom of expression. This right ensures that victims and society in general are able to speak about the past, narrate their own stories, and call for and influence social discussion and institutional reform. Mechanisms such as access to State archives, participation in the media, journalistic coverage of armed conflicts and the free flow of stories, artistic endeavours, criticisms and condemnations empower victims and the rest of society in the construction of alternative narratives and independent memories. This article examines case law of the Inter-American System of Human Rights that elaborates on freedom of expression, and considers its importance for the construction of historical memory. It also touches upon some decisions taken by the Colombian high courts, relevant to a context in which mechanisms of transitional justice have recently been implemented.
Keywords
- Type
- Reconciliation and (re)writing history: What to remember
- Information
- International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 101 , Issue 910: Memory and war , April 2019 , pp. 173 - 196
- Copyright
- Copyright © icrc 2019
Footnotes
*
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
References
1 Sontag, Susan, Regarding the Pain of Others, Picador and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2003, p. 114CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: https://monoskop.org/images/a/a6/Sontag_Susan_2003_Regarding_the_Pain_of_Others.pdf (all internet references were accessed in August 2019).
2 Mario Morales, “Los medios, en deuda”, El Espectador, 21 November 2015, available at: www.elespectador.com/noticias/politica/los-medios-deuda-articulo-600588. According to this research, media coverage of the peace negotiations between the government of Colombia and the guerrilla Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP) by national media channels mainly focused on official statements emphasizing war, whereas victims, civil society and academia were seldom considered as relevant sources. Victims appeared as a source in 2% and as a subject in 4% of the coverage; in contrast, the government was a source in 23% of coverage and a subject in 19.7%.
3 S. Sontag, above note 1, p. 115.
4 Galvis, María, “Informe Comparativo”, in Fundación para el Debido Proceso Legal, Las víctimas y la justicia transicional, ¿Están cumpliendo los Estados latinoamericanos con los estándares internacionales?, Washington, DC, 2010, pp. 21–22Google Scholar, available at: www.dplf.org/sites/default/files/1285258696.pdf.
5 Diana Guzmán, Nelson Sánchez and Rodrigo Uprimny, “Colombia”, in Fundación para el Debido Proceso Legal, above note 4, p. 113. These authors affirm that barriers for victims’ participation in judicial investigations and prosecution against paramilitary groups in Colombia under Law 975 of 2005 included lack of economic resources to attend the hearings, lack of information, lack of psychological support and lack of legal representation before the courts.
6 Baumgartner, Elisabeth, “Aspects of Victim Participation in the Proceedings of the International Criminal Court”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 90, No. 870, 2008, p. 439CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: www.corteidh.or.cr/tablas/R21692.pdf. Even though victims have gained attention internationally, for some authors this has also led to negatively affecting the rights of the accused. See Trumbull, Charles P. IV, “The Victims of Victim Participation in International Criminal Proceedings”, Michigan Journal of International Law, Vol. 29, No. 4, 2008, pp. 777–778Google Scholar, available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1156&context=mjil. Also, see the criticism of the IACtHR in Malarino, Ezequiel, “Activismo judicial, punitivización y nacionalización. Tendencias antidemocráticas y antiliberales de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos”, in Sistema interamericano de protección de los derechos humanos y derecho penal internacional, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Berlin, 2010, pp. 25, 45–49Google Scholar, available at: https://archivos.juridicas.unam.mx/www/bjv/libros/8/3515/6.pdf.
7 D. Guzmán, N. Sánchez and R. Uprimny, above note 5, p. 110.
8 Jelin, Elizabeth, “Las luchas políticas por la memoria”, in Los trabajos de la memoria, Siglo Veintiuno Editores, Madrid, 2001, p. 45Google Scholar, available at: https://tinyurl.com/y2grrfmc. Both the European human rights system and the Inter-American System of Human Rights have upheld that freedom of thought and expression is essential for the historical reconstruction of the past, and have underlined that the “sole historical truth” does not exist in relation to historical debate. See European Court of Human Rights, Monnat v. Switzerland, Appl. No. 73604/01, Judgment, 21 December 2006, para. 68, available at: http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-76947. Also see IACtHR, Kimel v. Argentina, Series C, No. 177, Merits, Reparations and Costs, Judgment, 2 May 2008, paras 41–43, 91–94, available at: www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_177_ing.pdf. This case refers to a journalist and research historian who was criminally charged and punished for defamation after publishing a book on crimes committed during the Argentinean dictatorship. Later on, this landmark decision led to the decriminalization of defamation, libel and slander when speech refers to public figures and their activities as such. See Penal Code of Argentina, Ley 11.179 (T.O. 1984 update), InfoLEG, Ministerio de Justicia y Derechos Humanos, Arts 109, 110, available at: http://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/15000-19999/16546/texact.htm.
9 E. Jelin, above note 8, p. 50. Jelin highlights that activists and what she calls memory promoters, militants or entrepreneurs might attempt to change or influence the sense and content of official history and its hegemony in order to eliminate distortions or to make public and legitimize versions that had been in the “catacombs”, concealed, censored or silenced (author's translation). Also, on how perceptions of heroism might ignore, silence or avoid shameful episodes of past history, leading to their validation and repetition, see Centro de Memoria Histórica, Recordar y narrar el conflicto: Herramientas para reconstruir memoria histórica, Colombia, 2009, p. 36Google Scholar, available at: www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/descargas/informes2009/cajadeherramientas/presentacionbaja.pdf.
10 IACtHR, Rodríguez Vera et al. (The Disappeared from the Palace of Justice) v. Colombia, Series C, No. 287, Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs, Judgment, 14 November 2014, p. 511, available at: www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_287_ing.pdf. In this case, the Court held that the right to know the truth derives from the State's obligation to respect rights, the right to a fair trial, the right to judicial protection, and the freedom of thought and expression. The Court affirms that the right to know the truth is subsumed basically in the right of the victims or their family members to obtain from the competent organs of the State the clarification of the acts that violated human rights and their corresponding responsibilities, via the investigation and prosecution procedures established by Articles 8 and 25 of the American Convention on Human Rights.
11 American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), San José, Costa Rica, 22 November 1969. The ACHR enshrines in its Article 13.1 on freedom of though and expression that “[e]veryone has the right to freedom of thought and expression. This right includes freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing, in print, in the form of art, or through any other medium of one's choice.”
12 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Annual Report of the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Vol. 2, 15 March 2017, p. 575, available at: www.oas.org/en/iachr/expression/docs/reports/annual/AnnualReport2016RELE.pdf. In this context, the Special Rapporteur has recommended that the States of the region should “[l]egislate in the area of community radio broadcasting, in a manner that will produce an equitable division of the spectrum and the digital dividend to community radio stations and channels. The allocation of these frequencies must take into account democratic criteria that guarantee equal opportunities to all individuals in the access and operation of these media in conditions of equality, without disproportionate or unreasonable restrictions, and in conformity with Principle 12 of the Declaration of Principles and the ‘Joint Declaration on Diversity in Broadcasting’.”
13 IACHR, Criminalization of Human Rights Defenders, 2015, para. 97, available at: www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/Criminalization2016.pdf.
14 Ibid.
15 M. Galvis, above note 4.
16 In relation to the tensions between the right to privacy and media coverage, see the analysis in Vivian Newman, María P. Ángel and María X. Dávila, Victims and Press after the War: Tensions between Privacy, Historical Truth and Freedom of Expression, Working Paper No. 4, Center for the Study of Law, Justice and Society, Dejusticia, Bogotá, 2018, available at: www.dejusticia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Victims-and-press-after-the-war-Versio%CC%81n-final-PDF-para-WEB-1.pdf.
17 International Committee of the Red Cross, “Colombia: Five Armed Conflicts – What's Happening?”, 30 January 2019, available at: www.icrc.org/en/document/colombia-five-armed-conflicts-whats-happening.
18 Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica (CNMH), “Misión y visión”, 18 July 2019, available at: www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/somos-cnmh/que-es-el-centro-nacional-de-memoria-historica/mision-vision.
19 Gloria Castrillón, “Las tejedoras de Manpuján: Fuerza femenina del perdón”, Cromos, 19 November 2015, available at: https://cromos.elespectador.com/hoy-historias-cronicas/las-tejedoras-de-mampujan-la-fuerza-femenina-del-perdon-16675.
20 Alcaldía Mayor de Bogotá, “Costurero de la memoria, el lugar donde las víctimas de la violencia tejen su esperanza”, 25 January 2016, available at: www.bogota.gov.co/content/temasdeciudad/victimas/costurero-de-la-memoria.
21 Carito Rendón, “Los raperos agricultores de la Comuna 13 de Medellín”, Vice, 4 October 2016, available at: www.vice.com/es_co/article/yv8zx7/medellin-comuna-13-raperos-hip-hop-aka-agroarte.
22 Corporación Colectivo de Comunicaciones Montes de María Línea, available at: http://colectivolinea21.galeon.com/.
23 ACHR, Art. 13.
24 IACtHR, Association Prescribed by Law for the Practice of Journalism (Arts. 13 and 29 American Convention on Human Rights), Advisory Opinion OC-5/85, Series A, No. 5, 13 November 1985, para. 30, available at: www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/opiniones/seriea_05_ing.pdf.
25 United Nations (UN) Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Report of the Independent Expert to Update the Set of Principles to Combat Impunity, Diane Orentlicher, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2005/102/Add.1, 8 February 2005, Principles 1–2, 4, available at: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G05/109/00/PDF/G0510900.pdf?OpenElement.
26 See IACtHR, Myrna Mack Chang v. Guatemala, Series C, No. 101, Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs, Judgment, 25 November 2003, para. 274, available at: http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_101_ing.pdf.
27 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, The Right to Truth in the Americas, Washington DC, 2014 (Chapter II – Legal framework: the conceptualization of the right to the truth in the Inter-American Human Rights System), para. 53, available at: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/right-to-truth-en.pdf
28 UN Human Rights Council, “Right to the Truth”, Decision 2/105, 27 November 2006; UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Study on the Right to the Truth, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2006/91, 9 January 2006; UN Commission on Human Rights, Res. 2005/66, “Right to the Truth”, 20 April 2005; ECOSOC, above note 25.
29 IACtHR, Zambrano Vélez et al. v. Ecuador, Series C, No. 166, Merits, Reparations and Costs, Judgment, 4 July 2007, para. 128, available at: www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_166_ing.pdf; IACtHR, Anzualdo Castro v. Peru, Series C, No. 202, Preliminary Objection, Merits, Reparations and Costs, Judgment, 22 September 2009, para. 119, available at: www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_202_ing.pdf; IACtHR, Radilla Pacheco v. Mexico, Series C, No. 209, Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs, Judgment, 23 November 2009, para. 74, available at: www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_209_ing.pdf.
30 IACtHR, Gomes Lund et al. (“Guerrilha do Araguaia”) v. Brazil, Series C, No. 219, Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations, and Costs, Judgment, 24 November 2010, para. 201, available at: www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_219_ing.pdf; IACtHR, Kawas-Fernández v. Honduras, Series C, No. 196, Merits, Reparations and Costs, 3 April 2009, available at: www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_196_ing.pdf; IACtHR, Castro, above note 29, para. 118.
31 IACtHR, Gomes Lund, above note 30, paras 239, 242.
32 Ibid., paras 201, 210.
33 Ibid., paras 2, 88, 121–125. Guerrilha do Araguaia was the name of the resistance movement formed by members of the Brazilian Communist Party that opposed the military regime.
34 Ibid., paras 6, 226–231.
35 Ibid., para. 297.
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid.
38 See Concurring Opinion of Judge Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor Poisot, in IACtHR, Rodríguez Vera, above note 10.
39 On the distinction between historical memory and collective memory, see Maurice Halbwachs, Memoria colectiva y memoria histórica, 1995, pp. 209–219, available at: http://ih-vm-cisreis.c.mad.interhost.com/REIS/PDF/REIS_069_12.pdf. This author indicates that if by historical memory one understands a list of events preserved by national history, those frameworks do not represent what collective memory is all about. Also see the mission of the Colombian Center for Historical Memory, which promotes “plural memories” of armed conflict by including views of different individuals and groups: see CNMH, above note 18.
40 On the transition in Spain after the civil war, Elizabeth Jelin observes that “times of political change, periods of transition, create a scenario of confrontation among actors with different, generally opposing, political experiences and expectations. And each of these positions involves a vision of the past and an agenda (in many cases implicit) for coming to terms with that past in the new era that is regarded as a break with all that has gone before” (author's translation). See E. Jelin, above note 8, p. 45. Guzmán, Sánchez and Uprimny, above note 5, pp. 115–117, explain that victims could not challenge or debate the confessions and declarations of demobilized members of paramilitary groups before the courts in Colombia under Law 975 of 2005. Besides the lack of access on the part of the media, the versions of the perpetrators justifying their acts were given more attention, leaving the victims with restricted opportunities to contradict them, cross-examine them and restore the honour and reputation of their relatives. Also, see the judicial ban imposed on a march within the Carnaval of São Paulo, Brazil, that intended to honour military figures during the period of the dictatorship (1964–85). Different NGOs mobilized against the tributes, while the promoters of the march claimed that their right to freedom of expression was violated by the ban. See “Justiça de SP proíbe bloco carnavalesco que homenageia a ditadura militar”, CBN Globo Radio, 9 February 2018, available at: https://cbn.globoradio.globo.com/media/audio/159161/justica-de-sp-proibe-bloco-carnavalesco-que-homena.htm.
41 Verónica Coral Rojas, “The Construction of Perpetrators in Enrique Buenaventura: A Reflection around the Construction of the Perpetrator in the Colombian Historical Memory”, Revista Cultura Investigativa, No. 6, June 2013, p. 51, available at: https://revistaci.weebly.com/uploads/1/5/6/0/15607460/05._enrique_buenaventura.pdf. Here the author explains that perpetrators are linked to the society that produce or enables them, and in that sense perpetrators should be understood as societal products; this does not justify their deeds, but can help to explain them.
42 Colombia Check and Rutas del Conflicto, “¿En Colombia existen pueblos paramilitares y guerrilleros?”, available at: http://rutasdelconflicto.com/especiales/estigma_grupo_armado/.
43 Constitutional Court of Colombia, Judgment T-478, Referencia: Expediente T-4.734.501, 3 August 2015, para. 27, available at: www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/relatoria/2015/t-478-15.htm.
44 Ibid., para. 93.
45 Ibid.; Council of State of Colombia, Chamber 3, Judgment No. 05001-23-26-000-1990-05197-01 (19939), 27 September 2013, p. 73.
46 Lobba, Paolo, “Holocaust Denial before the European Court of Human Rights: Evolution of an Exceptional Regime”, European Journal of International Law, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2015CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: www.ejil.org/pdfs/26/1/2569.pdf. This article analyzes the differences between the Western European and North American systems as well as the debates, controversies and dilemmas of Holocaust-denial litigation. See also Kahn, Robert A., Holocaust Denial and the Law: A Comparative Study, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2004, pp. 153 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar., available at: www.e-reading.club/bookreader.php/135786/Kahn_-_Holocaust_Denial_and_the_Law_-_A_comparative_study.pdf.
47 ACHR, Art. 13.5.
48 UN General Assembly, World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Review of Reports, Studies and Other Documentation for the Preparatory Committee and the World Conference, UN Doc. A/CONF.189/PC.2/24, 22 March 2001, p. 4, available at: https://tinyurl.com/yxe52hyu. According to the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, no one should be penalized for the dissemination of hate speech unless it has been shown that the perpetrator had the intention to incite discrimination, hostility or violence.
49 Council of State of Colombia, Chamber 3, Judgment No. 05001233100020090023301 (51623), 1 June 2017, pp. 21–22, and Judgment No. 63001233100020080009701 (41511), 18 May 2017, pp. 20, 27.
50 Ibid.
51 Bogotá District High Court, Justice and Peace Chamber, Judgment No. 11001600253200680008 N.I. 1821, 31 October 2014, paras 296, 298.
52 ACHR, Art. 13.5.
53 Ibid., Art. 14.
54 Congress of the Republic of Colombia, Ley de Víctimas, Act 1448 of 2011, Art. 143, available at: www.unidadvictimas.gov.co/es/ley-1448-de-2011/13653.
55 ECOSOC, above note 25.
56 Ibid., Principle 3.
57 D. Guzmán, N. Sánchez and R. Uprimny, above note 5, pp. 115–117.
58 ACHR, Art. 1.1.
59 IACtHR, Ríos et al. v. Venezuela, Series C, No. 194, Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations, and Costs, Judgment, 28 January 2009, paras 105–106, available at: http://corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_194_ing.pdf.
60 Ibid., para. 107.
61 Ibid.
62 Ibid., para. 109.
63 ECOSOC, above note 25, Principle 15. IACtHR, Gomes Lund, above note 30, para. 199. Also see Elisabeth Baumgartner and Lisa Ott, “Determining the Fate of Missing Persons: The Importance of Archives for ‘Dealing with the Past’ Mechanisms”, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 99, No. 905, 2018, available at: www.icrc.org/en/international-review/article/determining-fate-missing-persons-importance-dealing-past-mechanisms.
64 IACtHR, Vélez Restrepo and Family v. Colombia, Series C, No. 248, Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs, Judgment, 3 September 2012, para. 165, available at: www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_248_ing%20.pdf.
65 IACtHR, Kimel, above note 8.
66 ACHR, Arts 13.2, 13.3; IACHR, Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Expression Standards for Free and Inclusive Broadcasting, Washington, DC, 30 December 2009, paras 23–24, available at: https://tinyurl.com/y4hp2t57.
67 Ibid.
68 Ibid., para. 105.
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid., para. 24.
71 IACHR, Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression, 2000, Principle 12, available at: www.oas.org/en/iachr/expression/showarticle.asp?artID=26
72 Ibid.
73 Ibid.
74 IACHR, above note 66, para. 29.
75 Ibid., paras 68–97, 109–113.
76 Ibid., para. 37.
77 Ibid., para. 81.
78 Ibid., para. 132.
79 IACtHR, Manuel Cepeda Vargas v. Colombia, Series C, No. 213, Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs, Judgment, 26 May 2010, paras 228, 229, available at: www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_213_ing.pdf.
80 IACtHR, Rodríguez Vera, above note 10.
81 Ibid.
82 Ibid.
83 Ibid. Similarly, in a case concerning the killing of a human rights activist, the Colombian Council of State ordered a documentary to be produced on his life. The victims were to be involved in its production, the editing of the script and other aspects of the production process. See Council of State of Colombia, Chamber 3, Judgment No. 50001-23-31-000-1998-01262-01 (26029), 26 June 2014, para. 61.
84 IACtHR, Manuel Cepeda Vargas, above note 79.
85 IACHR, Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, The Right to Access to Information in the Americas: Inter-American Standards and Comparison of Legal Frameworks, 30 December 2011, p. 31, paras 99, 102, available at: https://tinyurl.com/y528zsvt. Here the Commission states that “the right of access to information shares the individual and social dimensions of the right to freedom of expression, both of which must be guaranteed simultaneously by the State”.
86 IACHR, Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, The Inter-American Legal Framework regarding the Right to Access to Information, 30 December 2009, Prologue, available at: https://tinyurl.com/y2bgan7k.
87 The IACHR Set of Principles for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights through Action to Combat Impunity, above note 25, defines the word “archives” as “collections of documents pertaining to violations of human rights and humanitarian law from sources including (a) national governmental agencies, particularly those that played significant roles in relation to human rights violations; (b) local agencies, such as police stations, that were involved in human rights violations; (c) State agencies, including the office of the prosecutor and the judiciary, that are involved in the protection of human rights; and (d) materials collected by truth commissions and other investigative bodies”.
88 See Ramírez, Ana M., Ángel, María P., Albarracín, Mauricio, Uprimny, Rodrigo and Newman, Vivian, Acceso a los archivos de inteligencia y contrainteligencia en el marco del posacuerdo, Documentos 31, Dejusticia, Bogotá, 2017, pp. 43, 46Google Scholar. This publication notes that the agreement between the Colombian government and the guerrilla FARC-EP for the creation of a truth commission did not provide for access to archives in possession of the guerrillas. However, the FARC-EP committed to sharing information related to the missing persons with the International Committee of the Red Cross. See Comunicado Conjunto No. 62, “Agreement on Missing Persons”, Havana, 18 October 2015, available at: www.accioncontraminas.gov.co/prensa/2015/Paginas/151018-Acuerdo-sobre-personas-desaparecidas.aspx.
89 IACHR, above note 25, Principle 14.
90 Jelin, Elizabeth, “¿De qué hablamos cuando hablamos de memorias?”, in Los trabajos de la memoria, Siglo Veintiuno Editores, Madrid, 2001, p. 22Google Scholar.
91 IACHR, above note 25, Principles 14–16.
92 ACHR, Art. 13.1
93 IACtHR, Gomes Lund, above note 30, para. 199.
94 Ibid.
95 Constitutional Court of Colombia, Judgment T-1025, Referencia: Expediente T-1401460, 3 December 2007, paras 5–18, available at: http://www.corteconstitucional.gov.co/relatoria/2007/T-1025-07.htm; Council of State of Colombia, Chamber 3, Judgment No. 50001-23-31-000-1996-05888-01(22666), 31 May 2013, paras 32.1, 32.6.
96 See above note 95.
97 See IACHR, above note 12, paras 1213–1231, on restrictions in Chilean legislation to accessing archives in custody by the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture (Valech Commission I) created in 2003 in order to determine who was imprisoned and tortured for political reasons during the military dictatorship. See A. M. Ramírez et al., above note 88, p. 58, which shows that in Colombia under the mechanisms created under the peace accords between the government of Colombia and the FARC-EP, the classification of documents for national security reasons is not binding to the tribunal created to judge crimes committed during the armed conflict. In relation to the Truth Commission and the Unit for the Search of Missing Persons, the classification is binding except in cases of human rights violations. However, society in general cannot have access to intelligence and contra-intelligence archives before the classification term of thirty years. Also see the public commitment by Ministry of Defence of Colombia to share military archives with the Truth Commission, in “Fuerzas armadas le abrirán sus archivos a la Comisión de la Verdad”, Semana, 17 December 2017, available at: www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/fuerzas-armadas-le-abriran-sus-archivos-a-la-comision-de-laverdad/551044. And see the statement of the president of the Truth Commission in “‘Las Fuerzas Armadas contarán todo lo que pasó en el conflicto’: Comisión de la Verdad”, Caracol Radio, 12 December 2017, available at: http://caracol.com.co/radio/2017/12/17/nacional/1513539877_870091.html.
98 IACtHR, Gomes Lund, above note 30, paras 230, 231.
99 Ibid., para. 202.
100 ACHR, Art. 13.2.
101 Constitutional Court of Colombia, Judgment T-1025, above note 95, para. 6.
102 Ibid.
103 Ibid.
104 IACtHR, Gomes Lund, above note 30, para. 202.
105 Ibid., para. 202.
106 Constitutional Court of Colombia, Judgment T-1025, above note 95, paras 10–12.
107 Ibid., para. 18.
108 Ibid., para. 12.
109 Ibid.
110 Ibid., para. 17.
111 Ibid.
112 IACtHR, Gomes Lund, above note 30, para. 231. See also IACHR, The Inter-American Legal Framework regarding the Right to Access to Information, 2nd ed., 7 March 2011, paras 27–31, available at: https://tinyurl.com/y26vvdoe.
113 Ibid.
114 Ibid.
115 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 13 December 2006, Art. 21, available at: www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-2.html. The Convention establishes, under the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information, that States must provide information intended for the general public in accessible formats and technologies appropriate to different kinds of disabilities.
116 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict with Regulations for the Execution of the Convention 1954, The Hague, 14 May 1954, Art. 1. (a), available at: http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13637&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.
117 Council of State of Colombia, above note 95, para. 32.7.
118 Ibid., para. 7.
119 CNMH, El caso de la Asamblea del Valle: Tragedia y reconciliación, Bogotá, 2018, p. 88–117 available at: www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/micrositios/diputados-del-valle/assets/pdf/el-caso-de-la-asamblea-del-valle_tragedia-y-reconciliacion.pdf. This report reconstructs the memories of two journalists who were killed while covering confrontations between the armed forces and a non-State armed group. The armed forces were ordered to economically redress the families of the journalists; also, the court ruling on this case underlined that journalists and their teams had not been responsible for those deaths because armed conflicts imply taking risks and personal commitment to provide coverage in areas with hostilities. According to the report, this case impacted some media channels to the point of creating careful protocols and procedures for their teams.
120 IACtHR, Vélez Restrepo, above note 64, paras 146, 148; IACHR, Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Violence against Journalists and Media Workers: Inter-American Standards and National Practices on Prevention, Protection and Prosecution of Perpetrators, Washington, DC, 31 December 2013, para. 1, available at: www.oas.org/en/iachr/expression/docs/reports/2014_04_22_violence_web.pdf.
121 Ibid.
122 IACtHR, Vélez Restrepo, above note 64, para. 142.
123 IACHR, Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Silenced Zones: Highly Dangerous Areas for the Exercise of Freedom of Expression, 5 March 2016, p.11, available at: www.oas.org/en/iachr/expression/docs/publications/ZONAS_SILENCIADAS_ENG.pdf.
124 Ibid., pp. 17–18, 72 ff; IACtHR, Vélez Restrepo, above note 64, paras 211–215. See CNMH, La palabra y el silencio: La violencia contra periodistas en Colombia (1977–2015), 2 December 2015, available at: www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/informes/publicaciones-por-ano/2015/la-palabra-y-el-silencio. This report indicates that from 1977 to August 2015, 152 journalists have been killed for doing their work. Most of them were workers for community radio stations and regional newspapers, committed to investigating and reporting on corruption and the armed conflict (Ibid., p. 60).
125 IACtHR, Vélez Restrepo, above note 64.
126 Ibid., para. 144.
127 Ibid., para. 145.
128 Ibid., para. 209.
129 Ibid., para. 194.
130 Ibid., paras 201–205.
131 Ibid.
132 IACHR, above note 120, pp. 19–21.
133 IACtHR, Kimel, above note 8, paras 54–57, 71.
134 Ibid., paras 87–88.
135 Ibid.
136 Ibid.
137 IACHR, above note 71, Principle 10.
138 Ibid.
139 IACtHR, Kimel, above note 8, paras 76, 85. In Mexico, slander was decriminalized in 1985 and defamation in 2007, with sixteen of Mexico's thirty-one States amending their criminal legislation to this effect. See Investigation and Analysis Department, Chamber of Deputies, Calumnias, difamación e injurias: Estudio teórico conceptual, de antecedentes, de las reformas al Código Penal Federal, iniciativas presentadas y de derecho comparado, Mexico, 2012. On Argentina's decriminalization of libel and slander, see above note 8.
140 IACtHR, Ricardo Canese v. Paraguay, Series C, No. 111, Merits, Reparations and Costs, Judgment, 31 August 2004, paras 106–109, available at: www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_111_ing.pdf.
141 IACtHR, Kimel, above note 8, para. 85.
142 Gonzalo Sánchez, “Tiempos de memoria, tiempos de víctimas”, Análisis Político, Vol. 21, No. 63, 2008, p. 4, available at: https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/anpol/article/view/46014/47567.
143 Ibid., p. 18.
144 By way of illustration, see IACtHR, Gomes Lund, above note 30, para. 90. In this case, the IACtHR recorded that, in connection with the disappearance of members of the Araguaia guerrilla movement, the government imposed “absolute silence regarding the events which occurred in Araguaia” and “prohibited the press from releasing news on the matter”.
145 G. Sanchez, above note 142, p. 21. In this text, the author uses the expression “democratizing memory”, emphasizing the importance of supporting victims who may not be able to write about their memories. For example, the author refers to ethnic communities and persons who are illiterate, who can be excluded from official narratives.
146 E. Jelin, above note 8, p. 62.
147 Ibid.
148 Ibid., p. 58.
149 IACtHR, Vélez Restrepo, above note 64, para. 277. In this case, the Colombian government affirmed that its training to the armed forces has a specific component on freedom of expression and protection of journalists.