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COURT METES OUT JUSTICE TO JOURNALIST IN COSTA RICA, BUT MEDIA PROBLEMS RIFE IN REGION.

Article Excerpt
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) has vindicated a Costa Rican journalist in a case that may only have cooled the tip of a melting iceberg. In 1999, La Nacion reporter Mauricio Herrera published four articles that relied on revelations in the Belgian press about the activities of a former Costa Rican diplomat, Felix Przedborski. For his efforts, Herrera soon found himself convicted in a Costa Rican court of a "crime against the honor" of the diplomat, and he received a sentence of 120 days in jail and a nearly US$200,000 fine (see NotiCen, 2001-02-22).

Since that decision, three other reporters have run afoul of the law. In February and March of 2004, Costa Rica's law on injury, calumny, and defamation have meted out a choice to the three Diario Extra reporters of 10, 30, and 50 days in jail, respectively, or commutation by payment of a specified amount of money for each day.

In these cases, the reporters, like Herrera, were quoting others, but were held personally responsible for what was said. Marco Leandro Camacho reported on a protest against a school principal and quoted members of the student government and their parents. The court found that the reporter had "made the declarations his own," fined the paper, and sentenced Camacho to 30 days in prison.

Gabriela Chavez Perez got 10 days for publishing an altered photo, which had been circulated on the street and on the Internet, together with the original photo, illustrating a story about that very subject, the alteration and sale of pictures of models on a TV program.

Jose Luis Jimenez Robleto got 50 days in jail for a story about a public...

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