The First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) annulled a court sentence that ordered the academic and journalist, Sergio Aguayoto pay 10 million pesos to the former governor of Coahuila, Humberto Moreirafor a criticism he made in a newspaper column.
The first room of the SCJN granted protection to Sergio Aguayo against a judgment of compensation for non-pecuniary damage derived from the allegedly abusive exercise of freedom of expression, due to the opinions contained in a column of his authorship.
The original judge acquitted Aguayobut the Court of Appeal reversed the decision and sentenced the journalist to pay the compensation claimed.
In disagreement, the defendant promoted a direct amparo, to which the former public official adhered.
The First Chamber exercised its power of attraction in this case, and when resolving the amparo, it resumed and continued developing its doctrine on freedom of expression (in its aspect of freedom of opinion), right to honor and actual malice or effective malice.
Based on this, the Chamber determined that the expressions that the former governor considered detrimental to his honor are opinions that are based on verified factual data and public knowledge, which in the specific case was suitable for considering that, behind the opinion , there was a reasonable, diligent and meticulous exercise of investigation and verification of the facts that served as its foundation.
Therefore, it determined that although the expressions used by the journalist could be classified as annoying or disturbing for Moreirathese did not reach the extreme of losing their constitutional protection.
It was concluded that the opinions expressed were presented in the form of propositions, with which one may or may not agree, but which encourage discussion and the formation of the opinion of the audience.
On his Twitter account, Sergio Aguayo celebrated the Court’s ruling, saying that he will not have to pay Moreira, but above all because freedom of expression is guaranteed.
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