*Update: On November 27th, Telecinco announced the withdrawal of its suit against Pablo Herreros. Telecinco/Mediaset’s CEO and Herreros had a meeting and came to an agreement. A joint statement and the blogger’s comments can be read on his blog [es]. You may have heard of Pablo Herreros, the blogger [es] who a few months got sponsors of a television show to pull their advertising until TV executives committed to more ethical behavior. The controversy arose when the show “La Noria,” which airs on the Telecinco network, paid between 9,000 and 10,000 euros to the mother of “El Cuco” [The Kook]—a young man involved in a murder—for a live interview. Herreros, who has long asked broadcasters to stop doing business with criminals—thus demonstrating that crime can pay quite well—launched a campaign on change.org to ask sponsors to withdraw their advertising Pablo Herreros: profile photo from his blog, comunicacionsellamaeljuego.com if the program did not change its approach, and the petition garnered more than 50,000 signatures. One by one, sponsors joined the public outcry, and within weeks “La Noria” had lost all its advertising, at which point it was canceled and stopped airing. In this presentation [es], Herreros himself summarizes what was considered a critical victory for ethics and the will of the people. Moreover, the Telecinco network—owned by Silvio Berlusconi and specializing in sensationalistic content, reality shows and celebrity news—substituted “La Noria” for “El Gran Debate” [The Great Debate], a program with a more serious tone, and it even seemed that the network wanted to clean up its longtime reputation for vulgarity [es]. But a few days ago came a shocking surprise: after several months of consideration, a judge has decided to allow Telecinco's lawsuit against Pablo Herreros, the blogger who started the movement, to move forward. It has been reported that the network has accused Herreros of threats and coercion. Telecinco is calling for the blogger to be sentenced to three years in prison and fined 3.7 million euros. As the news broke, social networks mobilized at an unprecedented pace, even for a medium whose main characteristic is speed. Mario Tascón, a journalist and writer, launched a campaign on change.org to ask sponsors to pull advertising from Telecinco until the network withdraws its suit, and collected tens of thousands of signatures within hours. At press time, more than 145,000 people have voiced their support for the petition. The search engine Trivago [es] has already announced that it is suspending its advertising [es] on Telecinco through December. On Twitter, the hashtags #lavozdePablo [Pablo's voice], #todosconpablo [everyone with Pablo], #conpabloherreros [with Pablo Herreros] and #bravotrivago received thousands of tweets, like these from Jomagaro, Pepo Jiménez, Olga Herrero and Carlos M. Cuasante: @Jomagaro: @trivago_ES Dejará de anunciarse en @telecincoes El principio del fin de la TV Basura? #lavozdePablo @Jomagaro: @trivago_ES will stop advertising on @telecincoes The beginning of the end for Trash TV? #lavozdePablo @kurioso: El ridículo de Tele5 en el caso @PabloHerreros puede ser histórico… ¿Alguien apoya a la tele?… http://chn.ge/Y23gLU @kurioso: The absurdity of Tele5 in the case of @PabloHerreros could be historic… Anyone supporting the station?… http://chn.ge/Y23gLU @olgaherrero :País d pandereta, igual se juega una pena superior a la del Cuco RT @mktfan: imputado x caso “La Noria” #todosconPablohttp://mktfan.es/XY7Pa5 @olgaherrero :Stupid country, watch for a worse sentence than El Cuco's @mktfan: charged in the “La Noria” case #todosconPablohttp://mktfan.es/XY7Pa5 ‏@cuasante: Así q denunciar entrevistas a madres de criminales es delito de amenazas! Que clase de justicia es esta? http://cultura.elpais.com/ … #todosconPablo ‏@cuasante: So condemning interviewing criminals’ mothers counts as a threat! What kind of justice is this? http://cultura.elpais.com/ … #todosconPablo Outraged Internet users don't understand how a blogger can be sued for threats when they consider the plaintiff, Telecinco/Mediaset, to be a much bigger menace. As the Associated Television Viewers of Catalunya (TAC) explained in a statement [es]: TAC considera que este tipo de acciones contra periodistas como Pablo Herreros tienen como fin último amordazar la libertad de expresión y un desarrollo natural de la profesión. (…) la demanda de Mediaset es una táctica para infundir el miedo a todo aquel que se atreva a denunciar su modelo de negocio, que se lucra, a menudo, con el dolor ajeno, las miserias humanas y la intimidad de las personas.