Costa Rica is no longer one of the few Latin American countries— including Cuba, Bolivia, and Haiti—without a law guaranteeing access to public information.
The Framework for Public Information Access law, approved by the Legislative Assembly in October and published last week in La Gaceta official government journal, “aims to ensure the State guarantees the effective fulfillment of the human right to access public information, proactively, promptly, officially, comprehensively, and accessibly.”
“This is an important accomplishment,” Giselle Boza, coordinator of the Freedom of Expression and Right to Information Program at the University of Costa Rica, or Proledi for its initials in Spanish, told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR) in an interview. “It consolidates, at the legal level, the broadly protective jurisprudence of our Constitutional Court.”
“In some ways, it fulfills a longstanding obligation Costa Rica had internationally, lacking a legal framework on access to public information despite having extensive jurisprudence guaranteeing this right,” Boza added.
The “obligation” Boza refers to is related not only to the short list of countries in the region without such a law but also to the more than 15 years during which independent organizations have fought to establish a law that systematizes access and sets procedures and penalties for violations.
While access to public information has been protected and guaranteed in the country—enshrined in Article 30 of the Political Constitution—through the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, resistance from public officials to provide information has increased, Raúl Silesky Jiménez, president of the Institute of Press and Freedom of Expression of Costa Rica, or IPLEX for its initials in Spanish, told LJR.
An October 21 article in La Nación reported that violations of this right have reached ‘record levels’ this year . Data shows the country’s Constitutional Chamber has granted 459 orders in favor of citizens denied information by public institutions, according to the article.
The number ‘is much higher’ than in 2023, when 294 rulings were granted, and 425 in 2022, compared to just 49 in 2020, La Nación reported. The increase is especially notable under the administration of President Rodrigo Chaves, known for his poor relationship with the press and distaste for criticism.
In a recent editorial titled “Deserved Last Place,” editors of La Nación highlighted the case of the Ministry of Education, ordered by the Constitutional Chamber to provide data to analyze the country's education system annually—a request it had never refused until recently. The newspaper reported the Public Prosecutor’s Office had also withheld information from the media about hiring the attorney general's partner to the institution. Due to cases like these and the lack of a public access law—until now—Costa Rica ranked last among OECD countries for access to public information.
“It’s not that there weren’t violations under previous governments” Boza said. “But violations of the right to access information have risen significantly under this administration, especially by heads of public institutions.”
For Silesky, one of the most important aspects of drafting the legislation was the participation of independent organizations and other sectors, including Proledi, IPLEX, and the news site Delfino.cr.
The bill, led by Congressman Alejandro Pacheco, was based on the 2022 bill that came closest to becoming law. Former President Carlos Alvarado partially vetoed it, deeming the section on exemptions overly broad and ambiguous, potentially restricting the right to access.
The new law upholds the protective jurisprudence established by previous rulings of the Constitutional Court, according to Boza and Silesky.
“It is a law that benefits citizens by establishing a protocol, a disciplinary framework, and a series of public policy principles to guarantee the right to access information, especially for vulnerable populations,” Boza said.
Proledi also pushed to include an inclusion principle, Boza said, which requires the government to ensure equal access opportunities for vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities, the elderly, women, and Indigenous communities.
Another significant aspect of the law is its broad definition of entities required to provide information, extending beyond the branches of government to include some private entities handling public interest information. Political parties during electoral periods, for example, are included, Boza said.
One of the most crucial elements of the law is the penalties for those who violate this right, ranging from oral reprimands to unpaid suspensions. Although the Constitutional Court upheld the right by ordering information to be provided, officials who refused to comply faced no penalties.
“The Court only awards abstract damages,” Boza explained, adding that affected individuals would need to go to trial and prove harm to receive compensation. “So, public officials, since it’s only the public body condemned in the abstract, didn’t really care about violating this right.”
In addition to establishing a process for requesting information and deadlines for providing it, the law requires institutions to justify any denial. Citizens do not need to explain their reasons for the request.
Silesky said that the law does not exclude the Constitutional Court from its role as the legal protector of this citizen right.
“I am very pleased we have this law. It took a long time and many years of effort,” Silesky said. “If the Constitutional Court’s composition changes and some justices come in who are less supportive of this right, it’s better to have a law that consolidates this right for citizens.”
The law came into effect on November 1, starting a six-month period for institutions to publish and maintain updated information, Delfino.cr reported.
