Censorship returns to Spain

As a young boy I was an huge fan of Krazy Comic and Monster Fun (and no, NOT the Beano or the Dandy: why do people always say that? Do they even remember the 1970s?).

But these titles and many more were sadly merged into oblivion, and ever since the mid-1980s there's been a hole in my life.

That hole has now been filled by El Jueves, the Spanish satirical magazine which for 30 years has poked fun at the establishment. Somewhere between both Viz and Private Eye, but in fact much better than either, El Jueves has a genuinely political outlook: 'the news you never see on TV' is one feature.

It's great for language learning and extremely funny, and I now look forward to El Jueves with the same anticipation that, back in the day, I used to reserve for the 32-page comic high that was Whizzer and Chips.

In June 2007 a front cover of El Jueves showed another hole being filled: a cartoon of Spain's crown prince Felipe having sex with his wife, Letizia, and commenting on the long-awaited socialist law which gives new parents one-off grants ('baby cheques') to help them provide for their new babies.

“Do you realise that if you end up pregnant,” Felipe says to Letizia, who is kneeling on the bed in front of him, “this will be the nearest thing to work I've ever done in my life.”

This was all too much for Spain's ruling class. A judge ordered the police to confiscate all copies of the popular revista (it was reissued with a different cover) and the two cartoonists were charged with 'insulting the honour of the royal family'. In November 2007, they were fined 6000 euros for this 'crime'.

In few other places in earth is a royal afforded such protection, and this is the first time in 20 years that the law has been used to censor a magazine. Even the traditionally conservative Spanish press came out in favour of the cartoonists and their right to free speech.

So here's the offending front cover for all to see, and I would remind the reader that the only person who ever voted for the royal family here in Spain was Franco.

As elsewhere in Europe, the royals here exist on borrowed time, and don't they know it. Many a true word is spoken in jest, and to its cost El Jueves has hit the nail right on the head.

PS: Check your attic: I will pay real money for a copy of the Whizzer and Chips comic from Spring 1979 that has my joke printed on the letters page... GG