The country's prestige regarding human rights and freedom of expression does not allow one to appreciate the alarm signals lit in the last two years. The verbal aggressions, in some cases, turned into physical beatings, denial of public information, and misuse of power to affect the economic interests of the media and its shareholders.
On April 17, President Rodrigo Chaves announced his intention to veto a bill promoted by four political parties to modify the amount charged to radio and television concessionaires for the spectrum. The amounts were fixed decades ago, and there is consensus on updating them. Still, the government has been using the argument to denounce an alleged abuse by the primary electronic media, which has also favored the update. The government intends to charge them 7.7% of gross income, which would affect the most influential press and its prominent critics. Moreover, it constitutes an additional income tax.
On April 22, a U.S. State Department human rights report warned President Chaves about attacks on journalists and media outlets. The document also contains observations on the concentration of state advertising in the National Radio and Television System (Sinart) and the reduction of public advertising in the media critical of Chaves' administration.
On April 25, alleging reasons for austerity, the head of the pro-government faction, Pilar Cisneros, asked to cancel the subscriptions contracted by the Legislative Assembly, almost all with media critical of the government.
On May 3, the Reporters without Borders report placed the country 18 places below the press freedom report published in 2021.
On June 10, a nine-month legislative commission that investigated the National Radio and Television System (Sinart) concluded that the government used the institution's advertising agency to concentrate and politicize all state advertising to favor the pro-government media and punish critics. The report, approved by the plenary, qualifies as a "perverse method" the recourse to contracting, "as a form of control to dominate the editorial line of the media and assign resources to those media which do not criticize the Executive."
The public institutions were instructed to hire Sinart to manage their advertising budgets to " democratize" the publicity. Later, the former Minister of Communication Patricia Navarro confessed before the commission, after being removed from office, that "the democratization of the Government's advertising is to pay so that they speak well of Rodrigo Chaves."
"They compromised and subjected Sinart to an unprecedented crisis, an institution that was used for a strictly political purpose by Casa Presidencial," states the report.
The parliamentarians recommended the Public Ministry investigate the "Editorial Committee" created in Casa Presidencial for the crime of influence peddling about the concentration of funds in Sinart and the management of resources from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE) to pay for communication services, mainly through a contest whose terms were drafted by those who were destined to win it.
On July 10, it was demonstrated that press conferences are choreographed to favor obsequious questions. When Héctor Guzmán, from Stay TV, asked the president about his government's questionable actions in the Gandoca-Manzanillo protected wildlife area, the response was to accuse him of asking questions so that third parties would conclude what he wanted. On July 30, the same journalist was disqualified and silenced by the president when he asked about the defects detected in a law promoted by the government.
On September 11, bodyguards from the Presidential Protection Unit (UPP) surrounded journalists David Bolaños and David Chavarría of Doble Check and Interferencia media when they tried to cross-examine Presidential Minister Laura Fernández and President Chaves during a press conference at the presidential palace. The president mocked the reporters and their media throughout the conference.
On July 16, a report on the state of freedom of expression by the Program for Freedom of Expression and Right to Information (Proledi) and the Center for Communication Research (Cicom), both from the University of Costa Rica (UCR), denounced that "the guarantees for press freedom have been eroded in the last two years as a result of the systematic attacks by President Rodrigo Chaves on journalists and media, the loss of public confidence in the media and the high levels of online violence".
65.6% of those surveyed in the report said freedom of expression is in danger, and 53% believe there is censorship or limitations to expressing oneself freely.
The report studied President Chaves' 64 weekly press conferences during his administration until January 2024. It counted 291 mentions to the press, of which 287 were negative.
On July 24, during the celebration of the annexation of the province of Guanacaste, Chaves criticized Channel 7. One of his supporters shouted, "They are cowards," and the president asked him to repeat it: "What did you say? You heard I am not going to repeat it, but the director of that media does not have what it takes (needs) that the Guanacaste people have enough to invite me to say, Chaves, come on, I will interview you live because if not they will cut you more than a seamstress. Come on, I will interview you live, and let's debate national issues".
On August 9, the reform to two articles of the Disciplinary Code of the Union of First Division Football Clubs (Unafut) established severe fines for any "pejorative, mocking, derogatory or offensive" statement about referees made by sports protagonists in the media, social networks or internet.
On September 4, the newspaper La Teja asked President Chaves about an investigation the Attorney General's Office opened for alleged "money laundering" when he bought his house and several luxury watches. The media was waiting for the answer and, without the news being published, Chaves unleashed an attack against La Nación, a member of the same publishing group, which had not asked the question nor reported on the investigation, as confirmed by the Public Prosecutor's Office.
However, Chaves directed his attack against La Nación and its director, Armando González, whom he once again described as a liar. Months ago, he dedicated a long video to asking if La Nación and its director were not ashamed to say that a law promoted by the government intended to limit the powers of the Comptroller General of the Republic. Shortly after that, the Constitutional Chamber ruled that the reform was incompatible with the Constitution because it would limit the powers of the Comptroller General's Office.
A law in force since November 11, 2022, requires all collegiate bodies of public institutions to audio and video record their sessions and make them, together with the respective minutes, available to the public. Virtually none complies, and the country ranks last in access to information of public interest among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) according to the report of that entity published on March 26 under the title "OECD Perspectives on Integrity and Anti-Corruption 2024″.
Administration officials, particularly top management, refuse to respond to press inquiries. When they do, they let the ten days set by the general public administration law to respond to requests elapse, even though they have the information at hand when consulted.
