Defamation Law in Spain: Injurias, Calumnias and the Civil Honor Route (2026)

Spain does not handle defamation the way common-law countries do. There is no tort called defamation and no offence called «difamación». What English speakers mean by the word maps onto two criminal offences in the Código Penal, calumnia and injuria, plus a separate civil action protecting the right to honor. Which route you are in changes the deadline, the procedure and the realistic outcome, so this section starts with the map.

Information last verified on 23 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Spanish law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

Two crimes and one civil action

The criminal side lives in arts. 205 to 216 of the Código Penal. Calumnia is imputing a crime to someone knowing it is false or with reckless disregard for the truth. Injuria is any other action or expression that damages a person's dignity, reputation or self-esteem, and, outside a narrow domestic-sphere exception (art. 173.4 CP), only the grave ones are criminal.

The civil side is Ley Orgánica 1/1982, which protects the fundamental rights to honor, personal and family privacy and one's own image. Imputing facts or expressing value judgments that damage someone's dignity is an «intromisión ilegítima» under art. 7.7 of that law, and the victim can sue for cessation, compensation and publication of the judgment without involving the criminal courts at all.

The injurias y calumnias page works through both offences element by element, with the penalties and the procedure. For the country-level summary alongside the rest of the world, see the existing Spain defamation laws overview.

The criminal route runs on a querella and a one-year clock

Injurias and calumnias against private individuals are delitos privados: the public prosecutor does not act on his own, and a police denuncia is not how the case starts. The offended person must file a querella (art. 215 CP), a formal criminal complaint that must be presented through a procurador and signed by an abogado (art. 277 LECrim).

Before the querella is even admitted, art. 804 of the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal requires a certificate showing the parties held, or at least attempted, an acto de conciliación, a formal settlement meeting. Only offences against public officials over acts of their office are prosecuted without these hurdles.

The clock is short. Injurias and calumnias prescribe in one year (art. 131 CP), one of the shortest limitation periods in the Código Penal, so the conciliación and the querella have to move quickly.

The civil route: LO 1/1982

The civil action is often the more practical one. Once the intrusion into honor is proved, harm is presumed (art. 9.3 LO 1/1982), and the court values the daño moral by the circumstances, the gravity and how far the statement spread. Remedies include ordering the intrusion to stop, damages, handing over any profit made from it, and publishing the judgment at the defendant's cost.

The civil action caduca at four years (art. 9.5), four times the criminal window. And the two routes are not mutually exclusive: the criminal character of an intrusion does not prevent the civil tutela route (art. 1.2).

Proof matters in both routes. If the statement was made in a conversation you took part in, Spain's participant-recording doctrine means your own recording is generally admissible evidence.

Choosing between them

As general orientation: the criminal route requires a grave attack, a fast querella and the conciliación step, and ends mostly in fines. The civil route has a longer window, a presumption of harm and remedies aimed at compensation and retraction. Spanish practice increasingly channels reputation disputes through the civil courts, with the criminal offences reserved for the serious cases. The detailed pages of this section set out both so you can see which conversation to have with a lawyer.

This page is general legal information about Spanish law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case. The controlling texts are the current versions in the BOE.