Several thousand members of Spain’s security forces demonstrated in Madrid on Saturday with right-wing leaders against a reform project aimed, in particular, at lifting a ban on the unauthorized use of images of agents, AFP reported.

The prefecture in the Spanish capital put the number of demonstrators gathered outside the Chamber of Deputies at 4,000, where a law proposed by left-wing parties to amend a controversial security text passed in 2015 when the right ruled the country is under preliminary review.

“My colleagues are being filmed and with them fake and distorted videos are being broadcast on social media with a virality that could prove fatal to their personal lives,” said Miguel Gomez, president of Jusapol, the organization that called the demonstration and unites the main police unions and the civil guard (gendarmerie).

Holding a banner reading “this law puts us all at risk,” the union activists marched in the presence of the leaders of the People’s Party (Right), the main opposition party, as well as the far-right Vox party.

The 2015 Spanish text, dubbed a “gag law” by critics, provides for sanctions for the “unauthorized use” of law enforcement images “that could endanger the personal or professional safety of agents, protected installations or the success of an operation, while respecting the fundamental right to information “.

Fines can range from 600 to 10,400 euros.

However, in late 2020, the Constitutional Court struck down the law, which found it “unconstitutional” to force someone to ask for permission to use images of law enforcement officers.

This decision forced several left-wing parties, parliamentary allies of the socialist government of Pedro Sánchez, to propose reform of the text.