17
affects the ability of the editor of the newspaper to impart information; it also
hurts the reputation of the business.
As legal representative of “La Nación,” the alleged victim believes that the
court judgment against the newspaper was prejudicial to its ability to impart
information.
As a member of the Board of Directors, the decision as to whether or not to
publish a given article is not Mr. Rohrmoser’s immediate responsibility. Board
members do not have a role in that process. All the same, they consider
themselves answerable to the owners of the business for the “exaggerated
amounts […] that they have been ordered to pay as a result of court
judgments” that find the newspaper at fault. All this affects the business’
finances. The newspaper has “sixty million colones” on deposit with the Court
seized of the matter.
In the instant case, the established procedures for editing articles published in
“La Nación” were “scrupulously” followed. Those procedures basically strive to
“strike a careful balance so that every article airs the views of the person or
persons affected or [of] the actors in the matter being reported in the
newspaper; standards of journalistic style are followed, [featuring] full
verification of the facts and use of proper language in telling the story.”
These procedures begin with the journalist himself or the person writing the
article, the head of his section or editor. Then, as the facts begin to gel, the
story moves up the chain of command until it reaches the legal advisor,
whose job is to make certain that “all matters that might touch upon the law
are being carefully observed.” Other players in this process include the news
chiefs, the editorial chief and the director of the newspaper.
The judgment in question required the witness to make payment in the name
of the newspaper “La Nación” or face charges and “serve time in prison if the
ordered damages are not paid.” All this has left him fearful that he might be
prosecuted at any time and “afraid of the negative effects all this could have
on his career.” That anxiety and fear still persist, as the court ruling that
ordered him to comply or to “be prosecuted for contempt” has not been set
aside.
The witness is turning to the Court both as an individual and as the
representative of “La Nación” newspaper, and hopes that “the judgment will
be nullified, as otherwise it will have a profound impact on democracy in
Costa Rica.”
c.
Expert testimony of Rubén Hernández Valle, attorney
Legally speaking, the law cannot require that everything that is published be
true. As Spain’s Constitutional Court has held, “were truth to be prerequisite
for the right [to free speech], then silence would be the only guarantee of
legal certainty.” Spain’s Constitutional Court has developed the theory of
neutral reporting, which applies “in those cases in which a communications
medium is simply reporting statements made by third parties that violate the
law […] honor, personal and family privacy and one’s good name.” For Spain’s
Constitutional Court, the consequence of the theory of neutral reporting is
that the duty of diligent reporting is served when the existence of the fact or
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents