25 The American Convention attributes fundamental importance to the right to have one’s honor respected, precisely because it can be more vulnerable or more grievously affected. The American Convention is neutral on the question of penalization of offenses against honor. It is an option that the Convention leaves to the domestic laws of each country. In Costa Rica’s case, it is constitutionally permissible. Costa Rica needs to take a fresh look at penalties for offenses against honor, since such offenses are not per se violations of the American Convention. Up until now, criminalization and punishment of offenses against honor has proven to be an effective means to protect it. As for the question of whether violations of the right to have one’s honor respected should be penalized in a democratic society, the expert believes that while freedom of expression is essential for a democratic society, it is even more essential for the individual. Freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and the possibility of expression in all its dimensions: these are the individual’s mainstay. g. Expert testimony of Luis Alberto Saénz Zumbado, attorney and journalist The press is an institution of enormous importance in today’s society, an institution in which journalists are the central players, with businesses being the neuralgic points in the infusion of capital and technology. The press as institution enables the exercise of a number of freedoms and a right on a massive scale. Without the press, modern society would be unable to engage in the free flow of opinions and information. The right of the societies of this hemisphere to be informed was fully confirmed when the American Convention entered into force. Article 13 of the Convention upholds freedom of information as a separate right. In the modern world, it is the press that makes the exercise of that right possible, inasmuch as it affords societies access to information. In democratic societies, the free flow of information is essential to enabling the formation of opinion, which is the basis of the sharing of ideas. The press, therefore, has a unique responsibility in seeking, gathering, investigating and imparting information. Because information is essential to enabling the formation of opinions, the press has an obligation to provide society with information that reflects the fact or event being reported as accurately as possible. In reality, information is a collection of versions of a particular event or fact. News, a term used by the press to refer to information, are versions of facts or events recounted directly by the journalist himself or taken from other sources that portray themselves as original sources because they witnessed the facts or events, were the protagonists of those facts or events, or had knowledge of them. Pluralism in reporting is assured when the news is drawn from a number of versions, thus enabling the public to be better informed and develop a more-informed opinion of facts and events.