The president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, criticized the press this Wednesday for publishing what he considers "lies" Y "rumors" about his Government, in particular about a meeting in which his chief of staff, Jorge Rodríguez, gave instructions to those in charge of the communication offices of public institutions.
"They are lies, anonymous rumors where the newspaper did not have the consideration to call to ask if it was true"declared that Wednesday the president in a press conference.
The newspaper La Nación, Diario Extra, the digital media CRHoy, Channel 7 and Radio Monumental published information between Tuesday and Wednesday with confidential sources that assured them that during the meeting with Chaves’ chief of staff they received orders to restrict the work of the press and of working with "absolute discipline".
Around midnight on Tuesday, the Minister of Communication, Patricia Navarro, and several press officers from institutions denied the press publications and this Wednesday, President Chaves criticized the media.
"There were publications of lies and falsehoods. I don’t know if it was due to negligence of the media, for not having asked or given an opportunity for fairness (balance). Nothing that was reported existed. The people will judge if it was negligence, malpractice or bad faith"said the president.
This Wednesday, the Presidential House also released an audio of the intervention of Chaves’s chief of staff during Tuesday’s meeting with those in charge of communication from the ministries and public institutions.
"We are used to communicating through the media. For those who don’t know, the media don’t like us, they won’t publish absolutely anything we do well. Our communication has to be to the people, direct to the people"said the head of the office, Jorge Rodríguez, in the officially released audio.
In the audio, the official also orders that only one question be allowed at press conferences because otherwise "the usual big guys are going to keep monopolizing the questions" and further states that there must be "absolute discipline" in these instructions.
Chaves insisted that what the media published were lies and affirmed that the message that his chief of staff gave was "that communication has to be clear".
"Our duty is to maintain freedom of the press. That does not mean agreeing and accepting the publication of wrong things or lies, it is about frank dialogue with the press"said the president who during his campaign called "scoundrels" to various media outlets that published about sexual harassment allegations against him when he was a World Bank official.