Committee to Protect Journalists
Costa Rica
New York, December 20, 2007—Two men were sentenced yesterday to 35 years in prison for the murder of Costa Rican journalist Parmenio Medina, a popular radio host who was shot dead outside his home in July 2001. The Committee to Protect Journalists hails the conviction as a step forward in the fight against impunity.
A court in San José, Costa Rica’s capital, convicted businessman Omar Chaves of ordering Medina’s murder, and gunman Luis Alberto Aguirre Jaime of carrying it out. Father Mínor de Jesús Calvo Aguilar, the other accused mastermind, was acquitted in the murder case but convicted of fraud and sentenced to 15 years in jail. Chaves also got an additional 12-year jail term on the fraud charge. Six other suspects, accused of being intermediaries in the crime, were acquitted.
On June 8, CPJ sent a letter to Costa Rican President Oscar Arias expressing concern about a May 3 decision by the Costa Rican Constitutional Court to uphold defamation laws that set criminal penalties, including prison sentences of up to four months. CPJ was also alarmed by a bill recently introduced in Congress that seeks to regulate journalism by establishing strict controls and regulatory bodies.
Your Excellency: We are writing to ask you to use the authority of your office to reform Costa Rica's archaic defamation laws, which are incompatible with international standards of freedom of expression and rulings by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
SNAPSHOTS Links to countries: Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay...
New York, March 28, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for a prompt and thorough investigation into two gunfire attacks this month against the facilities of the daily newspaper La Nación in Costa Rica's capital, San José. Three unidentified assailants fired several shots at the newspaper building from...
Overview by Carlos Lauría Journalists throughout the Americas came under increased attack in 2004 for reporting on political corruption, drug trafficking, and organized crime. Although democratic rights have been expanding in the region, press freedom has not always improved as a result....
Costa Rica The nine-year legal battle of Mauricio Herrera Ulloa, a reporter with the San José–based daily La Nación (The Nation), ended on August 3, when the Inter-American Court of Human Rights announced a ruling overturning his 1999 conviction on criminal defamation charges. The Costa Rica–based court also ruled that...
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