A court in Vilagarcía de Arousa (Pontevedra) has dismissed the lawsuit filed by former drug trafficker Laureano Oubiña, who considered that the series Farina, based on the book of the same name by Nacho Carretero, violated his right to honor because the character who played him—identified by his name—presented himself as a “violent and vengeful bully,” an image that he says prevents him from reintegrating into society. society. The judge has completely rejected Oubiña's claim, therefore absolving Atresmedia, Bambú Producciones and Netflix International (which produced and broadcast the series), from whom the affected party claimed 1.5 million euros. The ruling of the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 3 of Vilagarcía specifies that the series, although based on real events, is not “a purely journalistic work” but “an artistic elaboration” based on the panorama of drug trafficking in Galicia, “particularly in the decade of the eighties and early nineties of the 20th century”, in which Oubiña was a capital character.
The trial for this civil lawsuit was held in November in Vilagarcía. Oubiña, who spent 20 years in prison, stated that his life had not been the same since the ten-episode series began airing in 2018. He was upset that he was presented as a “thug, cocaine trafficker, taxpayer. “illegal financing of electoral campaigns, evader of the action of Justice, violent and vengeful.” At the hearing, his lawyer, Jorge Paladino Hernández, added that the character in the series looked like “a person capable of taking the life of another, violent, sexist, cocaine trafficker, impotent, vicious, unfaithful, carried away, a bad father, “bad husband, brute, foolish, vengeful, abuser of women, ignorant or gangster.” He and his wife were also the fictional protagonists of scenes of sexual content.
The sentence, where it is clear that Judge Pedro Adrián Gómez Pedraza has dissected the series chapter by chapter, details that many of the scenes that Oubiña considers undermine his honor have been recounted by him himself in judicial statements, books and interviews, such as one in EL PAÍS where he recognized that “there were 56 million pesetas of B money hidden in two bread baking ovens” in the Baion manor, the greatest symbol of the power of drug trafficking in Galicia at the end of the last century and especially in the 80s.
Thus, in the last 30 years the plaintiff “has been publicly acknowledging in different media his participation in various illicit activities and, in particular, in the trafficking of certain toxic substances,” the judge notes. In fact, his past linked to tobacco smuggling and hashish trafficking is recorded in his memoirs. All the truth, published in June 2018.
The judge emphasizes that Oubiña was already “a recognized person” before the book Farina and the subsequent series, “given his participation in one of the most high-profile trials in recent history,” which turned the former drug trafficker into “a public figure.” […] known even by generations whose birth occurred after the aforementioned Operation Nécora was uncovered, as demonstrated by the follow-up that the series had.”
But, above all, the judge dismisses the lawsuit because he considers that a fiction series can take licenses prohibited from documentaries or journalistic information. “We are not faced with a purely journalistic work that tries to record truthful facts, but rather with an audiovisual production that aims to be an artistic elaboration in order to provide the plot with internal coherence and thus foster interest (… ) An average viewer does not expect a fiction series to 100% reflect the reality of the facts, since for this there are other types of productions, such as documentaries, with a higher standard of rigor in that regard.
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That is, as an artistic creation, “the series can deviate from the reality of the facts, sometimes being necessary to articulate a coherent narrative story, without this in itself implying the violation of any fundamental right of those alleged by the plaintiff.” . If some of the facts based on reality have been modified, the magistrate continues, this is in “an area protected by the fundamental right of artistic production and creation, which does not represent an illegitimate interference in the fundamental rights of the defendant.”
The judge concludes that Oubiña cannot allege that the series has meant “a detriment to the consideration that society had of him.” For this reason, he rejects the claims of the former drug trafficker, whom he also condemns to pay costs. The sentence is not final, since there is an appeal against it before the Provincial Court of Pontevedra.
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