MILITARY POWER AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS: THE CONFLICT OF JURISDICTION (1883-1906)

During the Bourbon Restoration, the Spanish Army played a key role in the effective recognition of freedom of the press. Over the years, the military authorities carried out a series of actions aimed at restricting free information and opinion in newspapers, especially if they dealt with military matters. The competence to judge printing offences committed by civilians was one of the few matters that escaped the army's intervention. In order to put pressure on the government and control offences against the army that were spread by the Spanish press, the military power used different mechanisms and finally managed to tip the balance of the conflict of jurisdictions in favour of the military with the approval of the Law of Jurisdiction in 1906.