The magistrate of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, Antonio del Moral, has stated that for a "correct functioning" of the Rule of Law "it is as important to have prepared judges who are knowledgeable about the Law and their function as it is to have a deep ethical sense and a desire to adapt to the so-called judicial virtues".
Del Moral intervened this Friday at the closing session of the meeting "Ethics, society, and law", organized at the International University Menéndez Pelayo in Santander. There he explained that the growing international interest in judicial ethics, visible since the late 20th century, has materialized in the development of national and supranational judicial ethics codes, as well as in various initiatives to disseminate and strengthen these principles among those who are part of the judicial career.
During the meeting, promoted by the Fernando Pombo Foundation together with the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, the Mutuality Foundation, and the law firm Gómez-Acebo & Pombo Abogados, experts from the academic world, the Law, business, and the media agreed on highlighting the urgency of reinforcing ethical principles and institutional responsibility as essential elements for the quality of democracy and social coexistence.
The final session focused on analyzing the role of Justice and the press as guarantors of democratic quality. It featured the intervention of the retired prosecutor and director of the Criminal Area of Gómez-Acebo & Pombo Abogados, Carlos Saiz; the professor of Constitutional Law and trustee of the Fernando Pombo Foundation, Enrique Lucas Murillo de la Cueva; the sociologist and president of Metroscopia, Juan José Toharia, and journalists José Antonio Zarzalejos, Elisa Beni, María Peral, Ángela Martialay, and Pedro Jiménez.
Toharia emphasized that democracy is defined "by having a whole series of checks and balances that prevent or correct possible deviations or abuses of power in its daily functioning" and that the courts and the media are "two essential protagonists in the task of detection and alert".
In turn, Zarzalejos argued that the press should advocate for self-regulation "according to criteria of common social and civic morality, thus avoiding possible restrictions on freedom of expression arising from normative interventionism".
In the same line, Beni warned that "populism questions democratic intermediaries," among them journalists, and claimed his role as a dam so that the citizen "does not remain alone in front of power."
Martialay, a journalist from El Mundo, examined "how social polarization has ended up permeating the journalistic field" and sent a message of confidence by highlighting the work of information professionals.
"Now the news is faster, but are they better? I don't think so," stated María Peral, deputy director of El Español and head of the judicial information area. She warned that immediacy and information saturation "have reduced the consequences of journalistic errors" and called for strengthening the instruments of professional responsibility, while asserting that "the recovery of journalism's credibility involves a deontological rearmament."
Finally, Pedro Jiménez, chief editor of Cadena SER, emphasized that specialized journalists in courts "must maintain the rigor required of our work despite the precariousness of the profession and the polarization in society." "Journalists are not political agents," he insisted.