Rob Horgan
GIBRALTAR is fighting back against years of ‘slanderous’ comments made by Spanish media outlets and far-right unions.
Three high-profile defamation cases against TV channel Telecinco, Spanish newspaper ABC and union Manos Limpias have been opened in Spain.
Legal proceedings are underway against Telecinco after its presenter Ana Rosa Quintana claimed Gibraltar is the ‘largest importer of drugs into Spain’.
Quintana claimed Spanish border officials ‘confiscate large quantities’ of contraband every day and that ‘60% of all drugs seized in Spain come from Gibraltar’.
She also claimed that drugs could be ‘easily’ obtained from the Rock’s ‘kiosks, supermarkets and grocery stores’, during her programme in June.
Meanwhile Spanish daily newspaper ABC recently published a rectification after labelling the rock an ‘iceberg of dirty money’ with links to the Russian Mafia.
A new case against the newspaper will now appear in Spain’s courts later this year.
While Fabian Picardo’s personal defamation suit against Manos Limpias is also in the process of being enforced in Spain, following the Chief Minister’s victory at Gibraltar’s Supreme court where he was awarded £30,000 in damages.
His claim relates to comments made by the union’s leader, Miguel Bernard Remon, in which he described Picardo as ‘an accomplice, collaborator and necessary co-operator in smuggling, drug trafficking and money laundering’ in front of the European Commission in 2013.
Lawyer Charles Gomez, who has been solicited to take on Tele Cinco and ABC, told the Olive Press ‘enough is enough’.
“The government has finally had enough of the lies, untruths and complete propaganda,” he said.
“As a result, they have instructed us to open lawsuits against ABC and Tele Cinco.
“We have already had success against ABC and expect more of the same.”
About bloody time.