José Isidoro Morales

José Isidoro Morales (Huelva, 1758 – Paris, 1818) is now recognized as the father of freedom of the press, a liberal concept that in our days has come to be called freedom of the press. If this is so, it is for a twofold reason: for the role the native of Huelva played in drafting the memorandum and bill on which the Cortes would base the approval of such freedom in 1810, and for the just recognition that has been given to his figure and work in recent times after two centuries of historiographical neglect.

Father of freedom of the press in Spain

His Memorandum on the political freedom of the press, published at the end of 1809 on the initiative of the Public Instruction Board created in Seville to submit opinions to the preparatory committee of the Cortes, was undoubtedly a fundamental milestone in shaping that freedom. In reality, the main issue that the Board had to debate was not strictly related to education but one whose significance exceeded the pure scope of public instruction and was at the very foundation of the political reform that the Cortes had to undertake: freedom of the press. Discussing whether such freedom had to assume a limitation a priori or a posteriori or whether it could be exercised without restrictions, as already admitted by the French constitution, was the subject that the Board had to clarify.

It was on December 7, 1809, when José Isidoro Morales read his Memorandum to the Public Instruction Board, presided over by Jovellanos. Morales was then a canon of the Cathedral of Seville appointed by Carlos IV and, in principle, had not shown signs of professing a liberal creed. However, his text was unequivocally favorable to freedom of the press, although, to reconcile the extremist positions that had been discussed in those days within and outside the Board, it was also moderate. In short, he advocated for freedom of the press without prior censorship (to appease the most enthusiastic), but subject to a law that would punish abuses that might be committed (to appease the most hesitant), which constituted a balanced proposal. In other words, absolute freedom to print should be decreed, and only afterward, ensure that the rule of law punished crimes committed in its name.

Approved as a collective opinion of the Public Instruction Board, even though not all its members agreed with it, on December 15, 1809, it was sent to the Cortes Commission. The Memorandum was printed in that month of December at the Seville establishment of Manuel Muñoz Álvarez and began to be sold, for general enlightenment, at the Hidalgo bookstore on Génova Street. It was a 32-page pamphlet that, curiously, was not signed with the name of its author but with the initials D.J.I.M.

In any case, although the content and dissemination of the Memorandum on the political freedom of the press allow us to now claim the pioneering role of José Isidoro Morales in this crucial issue of shaping liberalism in Spain, there is something perhaps even more relevant: it was not only Morales who wrote and gave birth to the Memorandum but also the author of the accompanying bill, which, although it was also sent to the Cortes Commission by the Public Instruction Board, was not printed. Fortunately, that project, in the handwriting of José Isidoro Morales, is preserved in the Archive of the Congress of Deputies. It was a fifteen-article project that constituted the draft on which the Cortes would later work. Therefore, the Project of the law on freedom of the press may have been a contribution from Morales greater than that which purely constituted his Memorandum, although, being a working document and not seeing the light in print, it did not become as known then or be as valued today. The bill was transcribed by Morales on December 14, 1809, and sent to the Cortes Commission, alongside the Memorandum, one day later.

Morales's ideas circulated and had a very broad echo, being the most direct precedent of the decree of November 10, 1810, by which the Cortes of Cádiz renounced prior censorship -except for matters related to religion, which the man from Huelva had not exempted- and recognized both institutions and individuals "the freedom to write, print, and publish their political ideas without the need for any license, review, or approval prior to publication." It was the first time in Spain that freedom of the press was decreed. José Isidoro Morales, despite taking two centuries to recognize his responsibility in this, can rightfully be considered the father of that freedom, now crucial in democracy.

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Manuel José de Lara Ródenas

Manuel José de Lara Ródenas in Doctor of History, professor of Modern History at the University of Huelva and corresponding academic of the Royal Sevillian Academy of Good Letters, author of the most in-depth research on José Isidoro Morales, synthesized in his book “José Isidoro Morales. From Andalusia to Paris: the life of the father of freedom of the press”, published in 2016. He has published more than ten books dedicated mainly to the Baroque and the Enlightenment, in addition to the biographies "Un heterodoxo en la Huelva de la Enlightenment: Miguel Ignacio Pérez Quintero", "José Isidoro Morales, a mathematician in the Court of Carlos IV", " The Works and Days of Lorenzo Cruz de Fuentes” and numerous poetic publications for which he has been awarded in several poetic competitions. Thanks to his research work, the figure of José Isidoro Morales is being rescued from oblivion and currently, the University of Huelva has named its Maxiaulario after him, as well as that of a street in the vicinity of its campus.