Crime of assault
The crime of injury, regulated in articles 147 to 156 quinquies of the Penal Code , punishes any action that undermines the physical or mental integrity of a person.
Crimes against the person
Crimes against honor
Crimes against honor protect the reputation, dignity, and social standing of individuals against expressions or conduct that may harm them. In the criminal sphere, these actions primarily take the form of insults and slander, which can occur in personal settings as well as through the media or digital platforms.
Criminal lawyers specializing in libel and slander
The crimes of slander and libel are regulated in Articles 205 to 216 of the Spanish Penal Code and protect the right to honor. Apart from the behaviors punished in these articles, the Penal Code also punishes other conduct that violates honor in other articles, such as slander or libel directed at the King, the Crown, legislative assemblies, the army, and the security forces.
All these offenses protect the right to honor , a right that, in many situations, conflicts with the freedoms of expression and information. In fact, the Supreme Court itself establishes that, if the expression uttered may conflict with these freedoms, the criminal judge must examine whether the actions form part of the legitimate exercise of the freedom of expression and information, since in that case they could not be punished through criminal proceedings (STS no. 20185/2022 of March 14).
To this end, the courts consider that the right to disseminate information prevails , even if it may be detrimental to the right to honor, if the information is of public interest and, moreover, is truthful (it is not necessary for the information to be actually true, but rather that the author has been diligent in verifying the information’s accuracy). Likewise, according to jurisprudence, the right to freedom of expression prevails over the right to honor when the expression refers to a subject or activity of a public nature, and said expression is necessary to convey a particular idea or opinion.