COSTA RICA

During this period judicial harassment was supplanted by economic pressures exerted through selective award of government advertising. The Internet was also used to anonymously threaten and smear the media and journalists. On March 23, shots were fired for the second time in less than a month at La Nación newspaper facilities. On March 8, an unknown assailant fired shots at the front of the building, forcing the surprised guards to take cover, and preventing them from returning fire. The gunman fled in a waiting car. Two weeks later, three gunmen fired shots from a moving car. No one was injured in the incidents and the police are investigating. On September 26, six legislators belonging to the Special Press Commission reintroduced a bill to amend legislation curtailing freedom of expression in Costa Rica. The bill marked a step forward but died due to a lack of political support necessary to bring before the full house for a vote. Commission members reiterated their support and will seek to have it fast-tracked on the legislative agenda. On October 2, President Abel Pacheco launched into a violent diatribe against the media for reporting on his vacation funded by individuals whose business activities require regular contact with the government. The president asserted that powerful interests were behind the stories, and were seeking to force him to privatize state entities and push approval of the United States-Central American Free-Trade Agreement. The president did not respond to requests to identify those involved, explain gifts he had received, or contradictory statements he made in his defense. It has been nearly two years since the administration requested government entities to refrain from advertising in La Nación newspaper. The daily opted to not make the matter a public issue but in response to a complaint by an opposition legislator, president Pacheco and his former minister of government affairs, Ricardo Teledo, justified the action by alleging high ad rates by La Nación, and that it lacked credibility, as well as higher circulation offered by other publications. The chairman of the Advertisers Association, not associated with the daily, cited periodic association reports to challenge these allegations. The order to refrain from taking out ad space came down shortly after reporting on illegal funding of president Pacheco's campaign. An intense campaign of anonymous emails and Internet attacks has sought to smear journalists and editors at La Nación and the Channel 7 news program. They are accused of malicious investigative reporting of scandals involving three former presidents of Costa Rica, two of whom are being held in pre-trial detention, and a dozen former high-ranking government officials. Journalists and editors with both outlets have been the targets of an incessant vilification campaign seeking to intrude upon and even misrepresent aspects of their private lives. In the most serious attack, which was revealing of the political motives involved, the chairman of the legislature, Gerardo González, convened the heads of the three branches of government to discuss a transcript of a telephone conversation between Pilar Cisneros, co-director of the "Telenoticias" news program on Channel 7, and the attorney general of Costa Rica, Francisco Dall Anesse. In the alleged conversation taken from a webpage the two disparaged various government officials, exchanged information and discussed plans, was characterized by González as a matter of national security. Shortly afterward the transcript was shown to be a fake. The six-month term set by the Inter-American Court expired without the Costa Rican government having paid damages awarded to journalist Mauricio Herrera for his improper conviction for reporting on matters of the public interest. Neither has the government implemented amendments to the law ordered under the ruling, which vacated Herrera's conviction by Costa Rican courts. The Inter-American Court held that the conviction was incompatible with the American Convention on Human Rights. The murder trial for the killing of journalist Parmenio Medina Pérez, gunned down on July 7, 2001 is set for October 18. Businessman Omar Chaves Mora, and a priest, Minor Calvo Aguilar are the suspected masterminds. The police arrested the gunmen, Jorge Castillo, a sports entrepreneur, and Juan Ramón Hernández, a mechanic. Luis Aguirre Jaime, aka El Indio, was also charged as a gunman, and Andrés Chaves Matarrita has been charged as an accomplice. John Gutiérrez Ramírez and Danny Smith are being prosecuted as go-betweens for the killers and the masterminds. The prosecution named César Murillo, aka Nicho, as another gunman involved. Murillo was killed by the police while attempting to rob a bank together with Aguirre and Chaves. An October 7 hearing will set the trial date for the killing of journalist Ivania Mora. Businessman Eugenio Millot Lasala was named as suspected mastermind, and Edward Serna Molina, Freddy Alexander Cortés and Nelson López Giraldo, the suspected gunmen. Edgardo Martín was named as a go-between in the murder-for-hire. In this case, it appears that the motive was unrelated to the victim's journalistic activities.