OAS » IACHR » Special Rapporteurship for Freedom of Expression » Costa Rica

Freedom of Expression

Costa Rica

            Investigation into the assassination of Parmenio Medina Pérez

 

            76.       The Public Ministry continued the investigation into the assassination of the director of the radio program La Patada, Parmenio Medina Pérez, which occurred on July 7, 2001.  Between December 2002 and January 2003, charges were brought against Luis Aguirre Jaime, the alleged perpetrator of the crime; Andrés Chávez Matarrita, suspected of having aided the murderers; and John Gutiérrez Ramírez, who allegedly served as a go-between for the direct perpetrators and the mastermind.  Another alleged direct perpetrator is thought to have been César Murillo, who died on May 17, 2002, during a confrontation with the police, who responded to a bank robbery.[1]  On December 26, 2003, the Office of the Attorney General detained the businessman Omar Luis Chaves.  Early in the morning of the next day Mínor Calvo, a Catholic priest, was also arrested.  The Office of the Attorney General is investigating Calvo and Chaves as the alleged masterminds of the assassination of Medina.[2]  A criminal judge filed an order of preventive detention for six months against Chaves and Calvo.[3]

 

            Judicial actions

 

            77.       On June 17, 2003, Karla Herera Masís, co-director of the news program Telenorte, broadcast in northern Costa Rica, was acquitted in a defamation trial.  The lawsuit was filed in response to a series of reports broadcast from May 27 to June 1, 2003, related to the irregular handling of a low-income housing project.

 

            Legislation

 

            78.       The Rapporteurship has received a steady flow of information on the consideration in various committees and on the floor of the Legislative Assembly of several bills related to freedom of expression and access to information.  In particular, it has received information concerning a Bill on Freedom of Expression and Press that seeks to amend some aspects of the current legislation on crimes against honor, and to include professional secrecy.  The Office has also received information about a bill on general reforms to the Criminal Code.

            Access to information

 

            79.       The Rapporteurship received information on several jurisprudential advances in relation to access to information.

 

            80.       On March 4, 2003, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice demanded of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social) that it provide a database with information on pensions to the newspaper La Nación.

 

            81.       On May 2, 2003, the same constitutional court, in opinion 2003-03489, ruled that the bank accounts of private juridical persons, when they have received transfers of contributions to the campaigns of political parties, are not covered by bank secrecy, for in such cases, the information on the accounts is no longer private and becomes a matter of public interest.[4]

 

            82.       On October 1, 2003, the Constitutional Chamber ruled that the Banco Hipotecario de la Vivienda should provide the newspaper La Nación with a database of the information on persons who had received subsidies for the construction of low-income housing.[5]

 

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