By Alejandro Martínez
Costa Rican newspaper Diario Extra has accused the country’s judicial authorities of spying on one of its reporters. Freedom of expression organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described the case as similar to Associated Press’ experience last year with the United States government.
Diario Extra said that it obtained a 200-page file from an anonymous judicial source showing that the country’s Organization of Judicial Investigations (OIJ) ordered traces on calls and text messages between journalist Manuel Estrada and his sources. The newspaper accused the OIJ of working with the prosecutor for organized crime, the anti-narcotics division, and the Office of Criminal Analysis to trace information over a period of ten months.
According to the newspaper’s deputy director, Patricia Hernández, their objective was to obtain the names of officials who have served as sources to the newspaper’s staff on organized crime and national security.
The newspaper called it a possible spying case and “an unprecedented act, something common to authoritarian regimes and dictatorships.”
Officials denied the accusations. According to Costa Rican newspaper La Nación, the OIJ’s deputy director Gerald Campos ordered the trace on the basis of an existing criminal investigation and sought authorization from a judge to investigate an official from the agency. The official stands accused of releasing sensitive information to Diario Extra about two kidnapping cases from last year.
La Nación added that Costa Rica’s Attorney General, Jorge Chavarría Guzmán, has denied charges of spying or any intent to curtail press freedom. However, he admitted that he ordered the trace because the leaked information about the kidnappings “endangered the lives of victims, witnesses, and investigators.” According to Chavarría, there was no tapping of the journalist’s phone, only a database search to identify the numbers the official dialed and the numbers of those who called him, reported CRHoy.com.
Hernández said that when Estrada’s articles were published the kidnapping victims had already been freed and their lives were not at risk.
The daily announced that it would file a complaint with judicial authorities, according to another newspaper, El País de Costa Rica. The newspaper was also considering filing a complaint with the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.
Various national and international journalism organizations expressed their concern about the incident. Given the possible collusion of Costa Rica’s highest officials, RSF called on the creation of a parliamentary commission to investigate the newspaper’s allegations.
“This is very similar to the scandalous seizure of the Associated Press’ phone records in the United States. Such activities violate the confidentiality of the news media’s sources, which is the bedrock of journalism,” the organization said. “Following the adoption of a computer crimes law that is still very controversial even after being amended, freedom of information has now suffered another serious setback in a country that has traditionally demonstrated a high degree of respect for this freedom.”
Last May, the AP reported that the U.S. Department of Justice tapped hundreds of their calls. The scandal forced changes to the DOJ’s protocols concerning their dealings with the press.
Following Diario Extra’s allegations, staff journalist Manuel Estrada revealed that last year authorities beat him up in an event where journalists were invited to participate in the simulation of a kidnapping. Estrada volunteered for the exercise and said that he was kicked and bruised. Officials said they would investigate the incident.
In terms of press freedom, in early 2013 RSF ranked Costa Rica second in the Americas, after Jamaica. However, last year the country raised concerns with the passage of the new Information Crimes Law allowing journalists who reveal “secret political information” to be jailed.
Click here to watch an interview about the case with Diario Extra’s Paola Hernández on Teletica television.
This post was translated by human rights investigator and journalist Patrick Timmons. Follow him on Twitter @patricktimmons
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
