OTEGI MONDRAGON v. SPAIN JUDGMENT 19 In its judgment in Colombani and Others, it examined section 36 of the French Act of 29 July 1881, which has since been repealed, concerning offences against foreign Heads of State and diplomats. It observed that the application of section 36 of the 1881 French Act conferred on foreign Heads of State a special privilege, shielding them from criticism solely on account of their function or status; this, in the Court’s view, could not be reconciled with modern practice and political conceptions. The Court therefore held that it was the special protection afforded to foreign Heads of State by section 36 that undermined freedom of expression, not their right to use the standard procedure available to everyone to complain if their honour had been attacked (see Colombani and Others, cited above, § 69). In Artun and Güvener, the Court took the view that its findings in Colombani and Others on the subject of foreign Heads of State applied with even greater force to a State’s interest in protecting the reputation of its own Head of State. That interest, in the Court���s view, could not serve as justification for affording the Head of State privileged status or special protection vis-à-vis the right to convey information and opinions concerning him (see Artun and Güvener, cited above, § 31; see also, with regard to excessive protection of the status of the President of the Republic in civil cases, Pakdemirli, cited above, § 52). 56. The Court considers that, despite the differences compared with a republican system like that of Turkey, the principles established in its own case-law in that regard are also valid in relation to a monarchy like Spain, where the King occupies a unique institutional position, as pointed out by the Government. In Pakdemirli, the excessive protection afforded to the President of the Republic derived also from the fact that the holder of the office ceased to have the status of politician and acquired that of statesman (see Pakdemirli, cited above, § 51). In the Court’s view, the fact that the King occupies a neutral position in political debate and acts as an arbitrator and a symbol of State unity should not shield him from all criticism in the exercise of his official duties or – as in the instant case – in his capacity as representative of the State which he symbolises, in particular from persons who challenge in a legitimate manner the constitutional structures of the State, including the monarchy. In that connection, the Court notes that the Basque Country High Court of Justice, which acquitted the applicant at first instance, observed that criticism of a constitutional institution was not excluded from the scope of the right to freedom of expression (see paragraph 13 above). The Court cannot but emphasise that freedom of expression is all the more important when it comes to conveying ideas which offend, shock or challenge the established order (see Women On Waves and Others v. Portugal, no. 31276/05, § 42, 3 February 2009). Furthermore, it considers that the fact that the King is “not liable” under the Spanish Constitution, particularly with regard to criminal law, should not in itself act as a bar to free debate concerning possible institutional or even