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EU again accused of inaction over rights

Puigneró lodges complaint after European Commission fails to rule on state Internet censorship related to 1-O

The Catalan government does not want the violation of digital rights that took place in the days leading up to and immediately after 1-O to be forgotten and is therefore continuing to demand explanations at the European level more than a year on. The Minister of Public Policy and Public Administration, Jordi Puigneró, yesterday registered a formal complaint to the European ombudswoman in Brussels, Emily O’Reilly, demanding a thorough investigation into the actions of the Spanish state in the digital siege that led to the closing of the official referendum website and many others related to it.

In fact, Puigneró already denounced this behaviour a year ago when serving as Telecommunications Secretary, filing a complaint with the European Commission. A year on, that letter addressed to the Commissioner and Vice President of the European Commission, Andrus Ansip, regarding the digital repression and censorship exercised by the state has still not received a response, hence this new offensive on the European institutions by the Catalan government in defence of digital rights.

The Minister justified the complaint to the European ombudswoman by referring to the lack of response by the European Commission, since one of the functions of the ombudswoman is to act in the event of a lack of response from the European administrations at the request of citizens or institutions. “What we intend to do with these actions is show that digital repression is inadmissible in Europe in the 21st century,” Puigneró said.

According to Puigneró, the closure of websites - those of the ANC and Òmnium - and the pressures on the PuntCat Foundation were a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.

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