Freedom of Expression

Costa Rica

           Assassinations

1.                  On July 7, 2001, Parmenio Medina, a radio reporter and the host of the program La Patada on Radio Monumental, was killed in Santo Domingo de Heredia.  The information received notes that the journalist’s radio show denounced acts of corruption. Prior to the murder, on May 9, 2001, persons unknown had shot at his house.  After this incident he was granted police protection, but at his own request it was withdrawn in June.[1] Three months after Medina’s murder, the former director of the Judicial Investigation Agency, Linneth Saborio, acknowledged that no clues had yet been found to indicate the perpetrators of the crime.[2]

           Other

2.                  In November 2001, several human rights and free speech organizations expressed their concern at a draft executive decree under which the questions that journalists could ask the country’s President at press conferences would be determined beforehand.  Under the terms of the decree, the President would only respond to questions related to the issue at hand, leaving all other questions to be answered by letter, electronic mail, or fax.

3.                  The Office of the Special Rapporteur asked the Costa Rican government for information about this, and was told that the press office had been considering the possibility of implementing a procedure for addressing the journalists’ concerns, but that the intention was not to undermine freedom of expression.  The government of Costa Rica explained that the procedure had been deemed necessary to comply with an express ban on publicity under which the government would be placed for the six-month period leading up to the presidential election.[3]

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