legible font; (b) the official summary of the judgment prepared by the Court, once, in a
national newspaper, and (c) the entire text of the judgment, available for one year on
an official website, in a manner accessible to the public. They also asked that a public
act to acknowledge international responsibility be held. In particular, they requested that
“a public act [be held] to apologize to the journalists Ronald Moya and Freddy Parrales,
in the presence of senior authorities, acknowledging that they suffered judicial
harassment due to the exercise of their profession, in light of the social dimension of the
right to freedom of expression.”
106. The Court finds, as it has in other cases, 131 that the State must publish, within six
months of notification of this judgment: (a) the official summary of this judgment
prepared by the Court, once, in the Official Gazette of Costa Rica in an appropriate and
legible font; (b) the official summary of this judgment prepared by the Court, once, in a
national newspaper with widespread circulation, in an appropriate and legible font, and
(c) this judgment in its entirety, available for one year on an official website of the State,
in a manner that is accessible to the public from the website’s home page. The State
must advise the Court immediately it has made each of the publications ordered,
regardless of the one-year time frame to present its first report established in the eighth
operative paragraph of the judgment.
107. Regarding the public act to acknowledge international responsibility, the Court
finds that the delivery of this judgment and the reparations ordered in this chapter are
sufficient and adequate to redress the violations suffered by the victims.
D. Other measures requested
d.1 Adaptation of the regime of subsequent liability in relation to freedom of
expression
108. The Commission recommended adapting the regime of subsequent liability in
relation to freedom of expression to align it with the inter-American standards in cases
in which the injured person is a public person or official, or a private individual who has
voluntarily become involved in matters of public interest. In particular, it recommended
establishing that civil compensation for eventual abusive exercise of freedom of
expression should respect the standards of the intentionality, harm caused or manifest
negligence of the author, as well as the principles of necessity and proportionality. In
addition, in its final written observations, the Commission stipulated that the State
should take measures to ensure that its civil laws established sufficient safeguards or,
in any case, were interpreted and applied based on the importance of the role played by
journalism and the nature of the work of journalists, their freedom to choose their
sources, and also the criteria of legality, necessity and proportionality established in this
case, which may include the attribution of liability pursuant to the doctrine of actual
malice or for similar reasons, such as absence of good faith or due diligence.
Furthermore, it asked the Court to order Costa Rica to decriminalize offenses against
honor or, at least, to eliminate “unequivocally” the possibility of criminalizing the
criticism of public authorities or other public figures in relation to matters of public
interest.
Cf. Case of Montesinos Mejía v. Ecuador. Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and costs.
Judgment of January 27, 2020. Series C No. 398, para. 226, and Case of Pavez Pavez v. Chile, supra, para.
168
131
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