IAPA President Danilo Arbilla sent letters to Costa Rican President Miguel Angel González and Supreme Court Chief Justice Luis Paulino Mora calling for the Central American country "to honor international treaties and commitments" by complying with the Human Rights Courts request.
The defamation suit had been filed by a Costa Rican former public official and the Supreme Court found against the journalist and his newspaper. It ordered La Nación to publish in full its decision and to remove from its online edition any reference to the matter that had led to the lawsuit. The complainant was filed by Félix Przedborski, a former honorary ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Organization in Vienna.
At issue were reports Ulloa published in the paper in May and December 1995 citing allegations in European media - including Le Soire Ilustré, La Libre Belgique and Der Spiegel - linking Przedborski with financial scandals. The Supreme Court held on November 12, 1999, that the European publications had failed to prove the truth of the allegations and therefore La Nación should not have reproduced them.
Those found guilty of defamation and libel in Costa Rica are required to pay a fine and have their names recorded in the Registry of Convicted Felons.
The findings of the Human Rights Court "give us a great deal of satisfaction, because the Supreme Court ruling against the journalist and the newspaper was contrary to any notion of justice and freedom of information and an assault on newsgathering and the peoples right to be informed," said Arbilla, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, news weekly Búsqueda.
The IAPA earlier this year described the Supreme Court ruling as "excessive, disastrous, a negative precedent of censorship and an attack on the basic principles of freedom of expression."
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