A few days ago, the Constitutional Chamber of Costa Rica agreed to review a petition by a news media organization claiming that the Organization of Judicial Investigations (Spanish acronym: OIJ) has been deliberately monitoring telephone conversations and intimidating its journalists. Now it’s the OIJ’s turn to be monitored and investigated, at least until the Constitutional Chamber issues a ruling.

The Chamber issued two injunctive relief actions in favor of Grupo Extra, a media conglomerate that prints newspapers and also broadcasts on radio and television. Under court order, the OIJ will now have to honor all requests for public information that tabloid news daily Diario Extra presents. The Chamber also ordered the OIJ to stop the arbitrary firing and meddling in the personal affairs of employees who may have been on the tabloid’s side during the iniquitous snooping operation.

It is easy to describe this situation as a sordid state of affairs. The case is being shaped as the OIJ using its snooping powers to limit press freedom. In a lower court hearing,  the Prosecutor General of Costa Rica and the OIJ Director denied wiretapping Diario Extra, but they admitted to have reviewed confidential telephone records for the purpose of catching and firing an investigator who allegedly leaked confidential information to the tabloid.

An Accidental Double Agent

There’s a Catch-22 insofar as both the OIJ and Diario Extra are claiming special rights to a certain privilege of confidentiality. As a journalistic organization, Diario Extra protected the identity of a female OIJ agent who leaked information that the newspaper claims should have been public anyway. In other words, Diario Extra thinks the OIJ was holding out and thus preventing freedom of the press.

The OIJ may have unknowingly directed that same female investigator to get dirt on Diario Extra in the hopes of containing leaks; this turned her into an unwilling double agent. Her cover was eventually blown and she was terminated.

The scorned agent is now blowing the whistle on her former employer concerning alleged foul play related to the OIJ’s dubious acquisition of low-quality bulletproof vests that couldn’t even stop shrapnel, let alone bullets or even knife blades. She has released documents that muckraking journalists are currently reviewing, and there are questions as to why the OIJ would spend so much money on worthless vests that provide little protection against ballistics and ultimately endanger the lives of agents working in the field.

The agent has also complained about receiving death threats and being stalked by her former coworkers, which may have motivated the Constitutional Chamber’s stern reminder to the OIJ and the Prosecutor General about not interfering with the investigation.

A Serious Threat to Freedom of the Press in Costa Rica

According to a report filed by Diego Pérez Damasco and Johel Solano Castillo of daily newspaper La Prensa Libre (owned by Grupo Extra), the Constitutional Chamber judges seemed very concerned about the OIJ holding out on information that the press should have access to.

Costa Rica enjoys the highest level of press freedom in Latin America. In the past the investigative hard work of muckraking journalists has lead to the criminal convictions of former heads of state. Press freedom in Costa Rica is a national treasure that runs parallel to the abolishment of the armed forces 65 years ago; for this reason, the national media is now carefully watching the detectives at the OIJ.