La libertad distorsionada. La injerencia del poder en la libertad de prensa durante la Restauración borbónica (1883-1923)

Abstract

At the end of the 19th century, Spain enjoyed a favorable climate for developing true freedom of the press, a right recognized in Article 13 of the Constitution of 1876 and developed through the Printing Police Law of 1883. However, throughout the period of the Bourbon Restoration (1883-1923), the Spanish government, represented by the conservative and liberal parties that peacefully took turns in power, adopted a series of measures that distorted the longed-for freedom of Spanish publications. The political and social events characteristic of this period (especially the terrorism of the end of the 19th century, the colonial conflicts in Cuba and Morocco or the influence of the regionalisms of the 20th century), had a notable influence on the actions of the public authorities. The latter used different legal instruments (the approval of different laws limiting freedom, the frequent declaration of the suspension of constitutional guarantees or the multiple sentences imposed through the ordinary courts), and other indirect mechanisms (the reptile funds or the sending of guidelines to newspapers under the threat of suspension or suppression of the newspapers), which served to establish a regime of information control, especially severe with the press that did not follow the guidelines of the liberal regime in place, and which left the liberal Printing Press Law practically without effect.