Official Announcement

El Confidencial and its editor, Ignacio Cardero, convicted for unlawful intrusion upon the honour of Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez

The Supreme Court has upheld the ruling handed down by Madrid’s Court of First Instance No. 42 on October 6, 2022, which convicted the El Confidencial newspaper and its editor, Ignacio Cardero, for unlawfully intruding upon the honour of Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez. The ruling is final and has also been previously ratified by the Provincial Court.

Over a period of several days during July 2021, El Confidencial published a series of audio recordings from a private conversation involving the Real Madrid president, recorded without his consent. In his ruling, the judge stated that “the form and content of the broadcasts show that the intent was always to undermine Mr. Florentino Pérez Rodríguez's public image. As such, this constitutes an unlawful intrusion upon his right to honour.”

“It was not intended, therefore, to inform, but rather to influence the opinion of the newspaper’s readers, and society at large, toward a negative view of the plaintiff, to discredit him personally — which clearly constitutes an attempt at defamation that cannot be protected under the supposed upholding of the Law and duty of information."

“This Judge finds that El Confidencial exceeded the bounds of its freedom of information, resulting in an unlawful intrusion upon the plaintiff’s right to honour.”

“I uphold the lawsuit filed against the newspaper El Confidencial and its editor, Mr. Ignacio Cardero, and declare that both co-defendants committed an unlawful intrusion upon the honour of Mr. Florentino Pérez Rodríguez by publishing the plaintiff’s audio recordings in multiple releases in July 2021, and I jointly sentence them to publish this ruling in all digital and print editions of the newspapers As, Marca, El Confidencial, El País, and El Mundo, on central pages and in the same typeface and size as other news items on the same page, within fifteen calendar days following the conclusion of the ruling; as well as to the effective and permanent cessation of the dissemination and distribution of the full or partial content of the recordings, prohibiting their full or partial reproduction; and to jointly compensate the plaintiff for damages in the symbolic amount of 1 euro, as well as to bear all legal costs incurred in the proceedings.”