August 20, 2020 – 03:13 pm
Colprensa
—
After warning him that he must be particularly careful in the use of his personal social networks for the sake of the neutrality of the position he occupies, the Supreme Court of Justice revoked the tutela action that had ordered the President of the Republic, Iván Duque Márquez, to withdraw from his official Twitter account, the message alluding to the commemoration of the Virgin of Chiquinquirá.
The Labor Cassation Chamber determined that President Duque acted protected by his fundamental right to freedom of expression, while the publication of the tweet was carried out as a citizen.
The presentation that was in charge of the magistrate Iván Mauricio Lenis, addressed the study of the scope of the fundamental rights to freedom of expression and freedom of religion, as well as the secularism of the Colombian State as a fundamental component of the social and democratic model of law .
In the opinion of the Chamber, although the publication was made from the personal account of the public official on July 9, it also makes comments regarding his functions or the position he holds.
However, in this particular case, although the citizen Iván Duque Márquez skirted the limit of the scope in terms of freedom of expression of a public servant of his inauguration, his procedure was not validly configured as an improper or disproportionate exercise of such right .
“It is appropriate to emphasize that, in the opinion of this Corporation, the manifestation of the supervised official manages to remain the expression of an individual feeling of his Catholic beliefs, which was not sufficiently important to compromise the secular position of the State he represents, as long as it was not it materialized in any official conduct or policy tending to favor or benefit in any way the practitioners of the Catholic religion, “says the providence.
In its ruling, the Court is aware that the custom or practice of a public servant of exposing his particular vision in political, cultural, social or religious matters in a social network of a personal nature can lead to confusion, as pointed out by the guardian, especially If it is an official who, as in the specific case, symbolizes the unity of the Nation and must ensure that the information it disseminates is timely, reliable, complete, accessible and neutral.
However, the Court warned the President of the Republic that he must be particularly careful when using his personal accounts on social networks, insofar as he must ensure that his pronouncements are adjusted in said spaces to the neutrality inherent to the government position he temporarily holds, with the in order to avoid confusion between his role as a citizen and his inauguration as head of state that, in other circumstances, may be considered detrimental to fundamental constitutional guarantees.
“In this perspective, an ideal measure to make such separation effective would imply the proper use of each of the accounts, the personal and the institutional of the Presidency of the Republic, in order to disseminate in the latter all the matters derived from the public function “says providence.
Finally, the high court made it clear that it should be avoided to refer to matters of its internal jurisdiction that could be interpreted as an official position, as the use of the internet tends to be more and more extensive and social networks are open discussion forums, which undoubtedly leads to increased public scrutiny of their publications.
– .
