OPINION: Responding to ‘privileged’ attacks

A group of citizens, victims of devious verbal attacks by some deputies, has filed a claim with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), since the members of this body enjoy total impunity for what they say during the period of incidents, including defamatory insults against people critical of his management or the Government. It is not a question of taking away the right to express himself freely, like any citizen, but rather that the aforementioned have the same opportunities to answer, refute or defend his honor. And is that, according to the internal regulations of the National Assembly, the deputies, in the period of incidents of the plenary session, are not legally responsible for their “opinions”, leaving citizens who are publicly defamed completely defenseless. The State has up to four months to respond to the IACHR, but, above all, the citizens await a reform of the internal regulations, to eliminate that privilege when it comes to personal attacks or issues far removed from legislative work since these deputies have abused of something that was surely born with good intentions but is now a weapon in the hands of unscrupulous people. – LA PRENSA, Jun. 10.