After what happened on Wednesday with the legislator Ivonne Acuña, regarding the insults received in social networks by Rodolfo Gamboa, head of the Department of Maxillofacial Surgery of the San Juan de Dios Hospital, the National Restoration bench urges the approval of the project that imposes sanctions for this type of situations.
The bill was proposed by Jonathan Prendas, from Acuña’s bench. The initiative seeks to modify the Criminal Code to establish responsibilities for what is expressed in these virtual sites.
Prendas said that although this Code already stipulates slander, defamation and offenses, the aggravating factor is that they occur in social networks
approving it and setting precedents is important. It is not enough that this gentleman has erased the post, nor that he asks for forgiveness, the damage has been quite strong,”
stated Prendas.
If the initiative had been approved before this Wednesday, Gamboa would have been exposed to 65 days of fine.
A fine of ten to fifty days shall be imposed if one offends, in word or deed the dignity or decorum of a person, either in his presence or through communication addressed to them. The penalty will be from 15 to 65 days fine if the offense was inferred in public or in any social network or technological tool of mass diffusion,”
says article 145 of the proposal.
Acuña, in an interview with CRHoy.com, accepted that she is evaluating the possibility of filing criminal complaints against Gamboa, who, among other things, said that if she were a prostitute, she would die a virgin.
In July, the fractions of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), Citizen Action Party (PAC), Frente Amplio and the independent Erick Rodríguez, were against the initiative.
Although legislators of various factions showed their support for the congresswoman and demanded administrative sanctions from hierarchs of the San Juan de Dios hospital, the press office of the medical center pointed out that this would not be possible, since Gamboa was in his free time and he did not make the remarks as a doctor of the institution.