The City Council of Linares (Jaén) and its insurer have admitted the violation of a resident’s right to honor in the municipality and have agreed to pay her, jointly and jointly and severally, compensation of 15,000 euros, after the Local Police spread her image unpixelated on its official social media profiles. According to the agreement, which Europa Press has had access to, the amount has already been paid to the affected person.
The facts stem from a post on the official Instagram account of the Linares Local Police, where the woman’s face was shown clearly, allowing her public identification and linking her to a traffic incident in which she was associated with driving under the effects of alcohol.
As the law firm CH Abogados has explained, the affected person filed a claim against the municipal administration and its insurance company for the injury to her fundamental rights to honor and to her own image, requesting compensation for the damages and losses caused.
The contentious procedure was brought to trial, with the testimony at the hearing of several Local Police officers. However, none of the witnesses was able to specify who was managing the Headquarters’ social networks at that time or who was the person who specifically uploaded the controversial post.
Given the inability to determine the person responsible for the social networks, the court ordered the hearing to be suspended to carry out further steps and to set a new date with the aim of having the person in charge of those profiles appear. However, before that continuation of the trial took place, the City Council of Linares and the insurer reached an agreement with the legal representation of the injured party.
The agreement reached has been ratified through Order 168/2026, of October 28, issued by the Administrative-Contentious Section of the Court of Instance of Jaén, Plaza number 2, which declares the procedure concluded.
The woman’s lawyer, Carlos Chamorro, has emphasized that this matter “goes beyond the economic compensation itself” and opens a debate on the limits of action of public administrations and the obligation to respect fundamental rights.
On this line, the lawyer has recalled that "a person can make a mistake, can become involved in an incident or even be investigated (...) . But none of that means that they lose their fundamental rights or that anyone can expose them publicly."
Chamorro has also rejected the argument put forward by the defense of the City Council, which sought to justify the dissemination of the image for a supposed purpose of raising citizen awareness. In his view, "raising awareness among the population cannot become an excuse to violate a person's honor, privacy, or their own image," insisting that there are other formulas to promote road safety campaigns without resorting to the face of a specific citizen.
Lastly, the lawyer has emphasized that "the social networks of an Administration are not a space outside the law nor an area free of fundamental rights," warning about the social stigmatization and the impact in the family and workplace sphere that those who find themselves exposed in this type of institutional publication may suffer.