COSTA RICA

COSTA RICA WHEREAS the constant legal judgments handed down against the Costa Rican media for publishing news regarded as defamatory demonstrates the troublesome backwardness of the juridical framework regulating these matters WHEREAS such judgments restrict the media by creating obstacles to the free flow of news, thus violating Principle 5 of the Declaration of Chapultepec, which was signed by the President of Costa Rica in 1998 WHEREAS the legal interpretation and application further restricts the body of law that regulates freedom of expression and of the press and the right to information THE IAPA BOARD OF DIRECTORS RESOLVES to urge the president of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica, Carlos Vargas Pagán, and the deputies that make up that assembly to enact the legal reforms required to reconcile internal legislation with the principles of the Declaration of Chapultepec to express to the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Justice of Costa Rica, Dr. Luis Paulino Mora Mora, the concern of the IAPA over the restrictive legal application of existing legislation.