The Catalan government has this Tuesday agreed to undertake legal actions over a report produced by the Spanish foreign ministry's Global Spain campaign on the Catalan independence movement. According to the executive, the report "The reality of the independence process" includes "subjective opinions on the events of 1st October 2017 which harm the image of Catalonia and violate the presumption of innocence of the people currently on trial and awaiting sentencing". As such, the government will bring it to the attention of the public prosecution service and start on the prerequisites to pursuing action against it.
The announcement was made by presidency minister and government spokesperson Meritxell Budó, who said there are "different elements which go beyond that which corresponds to the foreign ministry". She did not want, however, to go into specifics about what the legal actions would entail, saying the government's legal services were still working on it.
The report, designed to act as a guide for Spain's representatives abroad, was also sent to the media and others in mid-August. It aimed to counter the independence movement's rhetoric and, among other factors, took as good the prosecution position in the case against pro-independence leaders and the testimony of certain witnesses from the trial, before the judges have reached a verdict.
The Catalan government believes that making the report public "violates the European directive on the presumption of innocence" and could mean "interference in the judiciary" since, they argue, it's "criminalising the independence movement just weeks from the sentence".