Students took to the streets in downtown San José, Costa Rica on Thursday Nov. 15, to protest the country’s recently enacted and much reviled information crimes law, reported the Tico Times website.
Despite opposition from journalism groups, the president of Costa Rica announced a new law would take effect punishing journalists and citizens with up to 10 years in prison for releasing "political secrets," according to the newspaper El País on Wednesday, Nov. 7.
Costa Rican authorities identified the body of Mexican journalist Pascual Tarín Ávila, who had been missing since June 14, reported the newspaper La Nación.
In 1994, journalist Giannina Segnini founded a one-woman investigative unit—herself—at Costa Rica’s La Nación newspaper. Since then, the unit has grown into a five-person team that is trailblazing data journalism in Latin America, according to Journalism.co.uk.
Tico Times editor David Boddiger could already see the writing on the wall by the time he joined the newspaper two years ago.
Costa Rica’s oldest English-language newspaper, The Tico Times, announced on its website that it would stop publishing its print edition as of Friday, Sept. 28. The Associated Press reported that the 56-year-old newspaper laid off its entire 16-person staff on Tuesday, Sept. 25, and will restructure its business into an online-only publication.
The Costa Rican presidency created its own online newspaper to promote government achievements to citizens, reported the Central American newspaper La Nación.
Several Central American press organizations have come together to form a united front against the risks and threats journalists face in their respective countries, according to the news agency Notimex.
Costa Rican journalists could go to prison for revealing "secret political information" according to a controversial new law, reported the newspaper La Nación de Costa Rica.
On Dec. 9, Costa Rican courts opened an avenue to appeal criminal libel sentences thanks to an Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) case involving a defamation charge against a journalist, reported AFP.
Tensions between the Costa Rican press and President Laura Chinchilla's staff came to a head when the Journalists Union of Costa Rica sent a letter to her office demanding an explanation for recent obstacles and intimidatory acts against journalists, the organization reported.
Costa Rica's Congress voted to table a proposed freedom of expression and the press law that would have updated the 1902 press law, and whose approval had been pending for several years, reported the radio station Monumental.