(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 27 December 2001 IAPA press release: IAPA CALLS FOR ANTI-PRESS FREEDOM COURT RULING IN COSTA RICA TO BE OVERTURNED MIAMI, Florida (December 27, 2001)-The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today called on a Costa Rican court to overturn an order that a television station broadcast an election debate that […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 27 December 2001 IAPA press release:
IAPA CALLS FOR ANTI-PRESS FREEDOM COURT RULING IN COSTA RICA TO BE OVERTURNED
MIAMI, Florida (December 27, 2001)-The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today called on a Costa Rican court to overturn an order that a television station broadcast an election debate that includes all presidential candidates. It called the order a “flagrant interference in the news media’s editorial and journalistic independence.”
The order was issued by a majority of justices of the Costa Rica Supreme Electoral Tribunal, upholding a request for an injunction filed on November 15 by three minority political party candidates to the Costa Rican presidency who had not been invited to take part in a debate scheduled to be aired by the privately-owned Channel 7 TV on January 7. The station invited four of the 13 candidates, who between them have a 95% voter rating according to recent opinion polls in the run-up to the February elections.
In a note to Supreme Electoral Tribunal Chief Justice Oscar Fonseca, the IAPA expressed its “deep concern at the Tribunal’s thinking as uttered in its ruling, because on the pretext of equity but going beyond its role it sets out mandatory news requirements for Channel 7 that seriously limit freedom of the press and the right to information.”
Following is the full text of the note to the Tribunal, signed by IAPA President Robert Cox and the chairman of the organization’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Rafael Molina:
“On behalf of the more than 1,300 members of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), we wish to express to you our deepest concern at the ruling of the Supreme Electoral Court in the case of request for injunction No. 408-DC-2001 filed by candidates Walter Coto Molina, Walter Muñoz Céspedes and Justo Orozco Alvarez against Televisora de Costa Rica S.A., among others.
“The decision to require Televisora de Costa Rica S.A., Channel 7, a privately-owned communication medium, to include in the debate, scheduled for January 7, 2002, all the registered presidential candidates amounts to a flagrant interference in freedom of the press by limiting its editorial independence and news criteria.
“The IAPA views with deep concern the thinking uttered by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal in its ruling because on the pretext of equity but going beyond its role it sets out mandatory news requirements for Channel 7 that seriously limit freedom of the press and the right to information. This court order is also a serious matter because it sets the bases for intervening in and regulating the other privately-owned news media on the excuse of ‘equality of information,’ which amounts to a violation of free enterprise.
“Having examined recent rulings by various judicial bodies in Costa Rica, the IAPA cannot fail to express its concern at the propensity of the courts to adopt views and positions that are harmful to free speech and press freedom.
Mr. Chief Justice, we request that you use your good offices to overturn the order requiring Televisora de Costa Rica S.A. to include all the registered presidential candidates, as it curtails freedom of thought and of the press enshrined in the Costa Rican Constitution and it represents a serious setback for democracy in your country.”
