COSTA RICA
Report to the Midyear Meeting
Quito, Ecuador


In this period, sufficient advances have not been made in the area of press freedom. To date, there has not been any compliance with remedies imposed by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights in the Herrera case. The executive branch continues with its politics of punishment in the placement of government advertising, and legal criteria concerning the right to reply still have not been clarified.

On the positive side, criminal suits against the press have diminished following the sentence by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights in the case of Mauricio Herrera. The decision has discouraged those who would engage in these types of suits, but it is difficult to know how long the effect will last. It is also important to underscore the progress in court trials against those who have murdered journalists.

Media are frequently convicted, but neither the law nor the court system have laid out clear and unmistakable parameters so that editors can distinguish between the use of right to reply that the judges consider legitimate from one that these same judges would consider inadequate. Other areas in which confusion reigns concern what can be considered proportionate in the publication of the reply versus what aspects can be edited. The convictions, in general, do not have great economic consequences and the demands for space and the location of the replies do not tend to be exaggerated, a few exceptions.

The Legislative Assembly´s Special Press Commission has managed with difficulty to promote, in the absence of legislation, a reform bill to legislation that would limit freedom of expression in the country. The bill contains advances, but lack of political will keeps it from going anywhere.

More than two years ago, the executive branch asked public institutions to cease to place official advertising in the newspaper La Nación. The newspaper maintains a reserved attitude in the case, and its only expression in public opinion occurred when the protest of an opposition congressman obliged President Abel Pacheco and former Minister of the Presidency Ricardo Toledo to justify the measure. Both argued that La Nación´s advertising rates are very high, that La Nación has little credibility and that other newspapers have higher circulation. The president of the Association of Publicists, which does not have any ties to the newspaper, rejected all these arguments, basing his remarks on the periodic studies carried out by his organization. The order not to place advertising occurred shortly after the revelations concerning the illegal financing of President Pacheco´s election campaign.

The time limit granted by the Inter-American Court has expired, and the Costa Rican state has not carried out all the economic reparations ordered in the case of journalist Mauricio Herrera, unjustly sentenced for having reported on affairs of public interest. The State has also not made the legislative reforms ordered in the decision that overturned the sentence against Herrera.

The trial in the case of the murder of journalist Parmenio Medina, who was killed by three bullets July 7, 2001, could last for the rest of the year. To this date, only eight of the 245 summoned witnesses have testified. Businessman Omar Chaves Mora and priest Minor Calvo Aguilar figure as the alleged intellectual authors of the homicide. Police arrested Jorge Castillo, a sports manager, and Juan Ramón Hernández, a mechanic, as the material authors. Luis Aguirre Jaime, alias El Indio (the Indian), also figures in the dossier as a material author, and Andrés Chaves Matarrita is accused of collaborating with the assassins. John Gutiérrez Ramírez and Danny Smith are under investigation for being the go-betweens for the gunmen and the intellectual authors of the homicide. According to the Prosecutor´s Office, another material author was César Murillo, known as Nicho, who died at police hands when he tried to rob a bank along with Aguirre and Chaves.

The case against five individuals accused in the murder of journalist Ivannia Mora Rodríguez will be heard May 2, 2006. Businessman Eugenio Millot Lasala figures as the alleged intellectual author and Edward Serna Molina, Freddy Alexander Cortés and Nelson López Giraldo as possible material authors. Eduardo Martínez figures as the go-between in contracting the gunmen. In this case, the motives for the murder appear unrelated to journalistic work.

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58th IAPA General Assembly
JW Marriott Hotel & Stellaris Casino
Lima, Peru
October 26-29, 2002