Public prosecutor's office seeks closure of "El Jueves" web site

Spain's public prosecutor's office asked High Court judge Del Olmo to close the Web site of a satirical magazine whose copies were confiscated after depicting Crown Prince Felipe in an intimate bedroom scene with his wife, Princess Letizia, court officials said.

The "Jueves" magazine, published on Wednesday, pictured the royal couple in an explicit sexual position on its front cover. National Court Judge Juan del Olmo said the magazine had to be withdrawn from sale.

Court officials added the offending image should not be published on media reporting on the censorship.

Court ruling

Del Olmo wrote that the cartoon was "a clearly denigrating act which is objectively defamatory."

He said the cartoon "is a caricature that affects the honour and the intimate nucleus of dignity of the persons represented by it." "It could damage the prestige of the Crown," Del Olmo ruled.

Two Jueves cartoonists who were not involved in the creation of the cartoon were united in their support of the cartoon's creator, Guillermo. Rey told AP Television that while he thinks it's really rude, "that's okay because it's on the cover of a satirical magazine."

His fellow illustrator, Gallego was impressed, "because Guillermo is really rude. If I had drawn it maybe it wouldn't be so rude because I'm less rude."

Following Del Olmo's ruling, news of the cartoon, containing the offending image, was immediately published on newspapers' and radio stations' Web sites in a country accustomed to feasting on harmless gossip about a largely respected royal family.

There is an unspoken pact in the media not to damage the image of the King and the royal family.

During its 30 years of publications Jueves has often been critical of Spain's royalty and it had been asked by the royal household to "reflect" on its contents previously, said newspaper El Pais on its Web site. Director of of the magazine, Albert Monteys i Homar said "it's a direct attack against freedom of expression" and that he has been surprised by the reaction because "we've done it a lot of times before and until now nobody has detected the subject."

Press censorship, often used from 1939-75 when the country was governed by military dictator General Francisco Franco, is rare in Spain today. Newspaper El Mundo said on its Web site this was the third time Jueves had been censored by the judiciary, the two previous occasions had been in 1977 when the magazine's first and seventh editions were intervened legally.