EL USO DE LA CÁMARA OCULTA EN EL PERIODISMO DE INVESTIGACIÓN: UNA CERTEZA Y UNA INCÓGNITA

Abstract

The view of the Constitutional Court regarding the use of the hidden camera in the investigative journalism is clear and strict, being a practice constitutionally banned. However, this view is controversial. Actually, a broad group of professionals considers that the ban makes the investigative journalism impossible and is therefore detrimental for the proper functioning of the democratic system, as it prevents the public opinion to gain knowledge of unquestionable public importance facts such as appearing political corruption or abuse of power. The debate has been reopened as the European Court of Human Rights has admitted the use of the hidden camera under certain conditions such as to avoid the identification of the filmed person. However, the crucial question of knowing whether there would be any cases in which the identification of the people filmed with a hidden camera would be admissible remains.