Mexico Decriminalizes Libel, Joining Just One Other Latin American Nation

[Newsjock]

Source: Editor & Publisher

Free press groups hailed Mexican President Felipe Calderón for signing a law decriminalizing libel, slander, and defamation.

The law repeals some 15 articles of the federal Penal Code which made slander, libel, and defamation criminal offenses punishable by imprisonment.

Criminal libel laws are on the books of nearly all Latin American nations, though their enforcement varies. Mexico joins El Salvador, which reformed its Penal Code in 2004, as the only two Latin nations to wipe criminal libel off the books. The Mexican Senate passed last month, and the Chamber of Deputies approved the measure in April 2006. The law becomes effective when it is published in the government's Official Gazette.

... Under new articles 1916 and 1916a, defamation, libel and slander are now civil offenses subject to money damages and corrections of inaccurate statements, the New York City-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) noted.

Read more: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003572663

[Javaman]

1. So does this mean when in Mexico I can call the Mexican gov't

the lying, thieving, graff taking, pocket lining, crooked, evil bastards they are without worrying about going to prison?