http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19388

Reporters Without Borders issues its fifth annual Worldwide Index of Press Freedom. “Journalists in North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Cuba, Burma and China are still risking their life or imprisonment for trying to keep us informed,” the organisation said. “The steady erosion of press freedom in the United States, France and Japan is also alarming.”

The United States (53rd) has fallen nine places since last year, after being in 17th position in the first year of the Index, in 2002. Relations between the media and the Bush administration sharply deteriorated after the president used the pretext of “national security” to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his “war on terrorism.” The zeal of federal courts which, unlike those in 33 US states, refuse to recognise the media’s right not to reveal its sources, even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism.

Freelance journalist and blogger Josh Wolf was imprisoned when he refused to hand over his video archives. Sudanese cameraman Sami al-Haj, who works for the pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera, has been held without trial since June 2002 at the US military base at Guantanamo, and Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein has been held by US authorities in Iraq since April this year.

France (35th) slipped five places during the past year, to make a loss of 24 places in five years. The increase in searches of media offices and journalists’ homes is very worrying for media organisations and trade unions. Autumn 2005 was an especially bad time for French journalists, several of whom were physically attacked or threatened during a trade union dispute involving privatisation of the Corsican firm SNCM and during violent demonstrations in French city suburbs in November.

Rising nationalism and the system of exclusive press clubs (kishas) threatened democratic gains in Japan, which fell 14 places to 51st. The newspaper Nihon Keizai was firebombed and several journalists phsyically attacked by far-right activists (uyoku).

New Countries Move Up

New countries have moved ahead of some Western democracies in the fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index, issued today, while the most repressive countries are still the same ones.

“Unfortunately nothing has changed in the countries that are the worst predators of press freedom,” the organisation said, “and journalists in North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Cuba, Burma and China are still risking their life or imprisonment for trying to keep us informed. These situations are extremely serious and it is urgent that leaders of these countries accept criticism and stop routinely cracking down on the media so harshly.

Rankings in the Americas 

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19381

Bolivia and Canada ranked highest in the Americas at 16th place in a tie with Austria.

Trinidad and Tobago was 19th and Jamaica 23rd while Cost Rica followed at 29th.

Panama (39) and El Salvador (41) were in the top 50.  While Chile (49) and the Dominican Republic (52) also ranked ahead of the US at number 53.

Except for Guatemala (90th), Central America as a whole has good rankings despite the gap between countries such as Costa Rica (29th), Panama (39th) and El Salvador (41st), and Honduras (64th) and Nicaragua (69th). The few physical attacks on journalists also shows that self-censorship is at work.

The full plenario of the Asamblea Legislativa approved accepting a $127 million loan from Japan Tuesday. The money will be used to replace the aging metropolitan area sewer system and to build a treatment plant.

Of all the waste generated in the Central Valley, only about 4 percent receives any type of treatment and all of it ends up in the Gulf of Nicoya via various streams and the Río Grande de Tárcoles.

In addition, many of the underground lines are rusted away or otherwise breached. There has been no extensive work on the Central Valley sewer system since 1981, and since 1991 at least 100 new subdivisions or projects have been added to the network.

There was no obstacle except the assembly calendar.

Yesterday, La Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep) proposed eliminating the subsidies that diesel, jetfuel, and bunker fuel (shipping) receive.  This is unrelated to the taxes on fuel.

Because of the subsidy, regular and super gasoline, LPG gas and asphalt cost more.

ARESEP compared the subsidies with international fuel prices from 25/9/20006 to October 4th. The investigation found that  RECOPE undervalued the real price of diesel at the distribution plant in ¢33, while bunker was ¢26 less and jet fuel in ¢35.49.
Prices in other products compensates for the losses perceived in these fuels, for example, regular gas ¢46 more per liter, super ¢83, gas ¢25 and asphalt ¢150.

According to Carolina Mora, ARESEP spokeswoman, since the 1980s the government has subsidized diesel and bunker to reduce the cost of transporting people, the production of goods and agricultural products and to help families.

This has caused a distortion in prices and ARESEP has proposed eliminating the subsidy en all products, except super gasoline.

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Super gasolina would continue to be overvalued by ¢24, since eliminating this subsidy would affect RECOPE finances.

In the gas stations diesel would cost ¢33 more, while Super would cost ¢59 less and regular ¢46 less. ARESEP called for a public audience on December 7th. Then technicians would make a proposal that ARESEP would approve or reject.

Maritza Hernández, President of the National Transporters Union said that with this proposal public transportation costs would rise and this would affect the poor.

Shirley Saborío, Executive Director of the Union of Associations, agreed that the cost of transporting products would rise, which would affect consumers and businesses.

By Leland Baxter-Neal Tico Times Staff Following a pre-dawn raid yesterday on a home in a residential neighborhood in the Caribbean-slope town of Guácimo, police arrested three of the eight prisoners who escaped from the La Reforma prison more than two weeks ago and killed a fourth in a shootout.

A fifth escapee, Robert Clark, 21, was arrested Sunday in the nearby Caribbean port town of Limón as he drank at the city’s Carnival celebration.

The convicts broke out of La Reforma, Costa Rica’s largest prison in Alajuela, northwest of San José, during the pre-dawn hours Oct. 9. They sawed through the bars on their windows, took multiple guards hostage and killed another (TT, Oct. 13).

Yesterday morning, at approximately 1 a.m., police descended on four of the fugitives holed up at a house in a residential community in Guácimo, Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) Director Jorge Rojas said.

A shootout left one of the escapees, identified by Rojas as Freddy García, 33, dead at the scene and two others injured, including Guillermo Araya, 48, who was transferred to Calderón Guardia Hospital in San José in delicate condition.

Araya, along with fellow fugitives Alberto Martínez, 38, and Johnny Rodríguez, 46, were arrested after the shootout. No police officers were injured in the incident, Rojas said. Police also arrested two others in the Guácimo home who Rojas said are suspected to be linked to area kidnappings.

Additionally, eight guns were seized from the house, including two believed to have been taken from La Reforma prison guards, two fragmentation grenades and a gas grenade. Police are still searching for the remaining three fugitives who escaped from La Reforma Oct. 9. The men were serving prison sentences for crimes including kidnapping for extortion, rape, sexual abuse and homicide.

By Amanda Roberson and Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff

Back for round two of protests yesterday, opponents of the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA) returned to the streets to make their opinions against the controversial trade pact heard.

Though yesterday’s crowds were notably smaller than Monday’s, anti-CAFTA protestors, including union members, students and environmentalists, maintained their steam, meeting at points around the city and converging on the Legislative Assembly downtown, where the agreement is being discussed.

However, in a departure from the generally peaceful tone of the two-day protest, a group of demonstrators, mostly university students, chose to skip the march and instead form a road blockade, just outside the University of Costa Rica (UCR) Law School. Using tree branches, metal chair frames, cardboard and even a sofa, they blocked the divided highway and then used the space for speeches, dancing and even an impromptu soccer game.

The protestors covered their faces – because of “police repression in this fascist country,” one student told The Tico Times – and piled rocks on the ground and in a shopping cart, throwing a few of them at journalists who tried to approach.

Though a group of National Police officers in riot gear appeared to be preparing to break up the blockade at around noon following an appearance by Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal, the minister returned shortly after and told reporters the police would not react.

“It’s a provocation, and we’re not going to fall for it,” he said, exiting the neighborhood Taco Bell with a soft drink in hand.

At a press conference later at Casa Presidencial, Berrocal explained that police had received word that those in the blockade – who, by mid-afternoon, had grown in number – had Molotov cocktails and planned to set the whole area on fire if the police approached, thanks to gasoline doused near the barriers.

Berrocal said he and Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias would continue monitoring the situation in San Pedro to decide if a police response is needed – no such action had taken place at press time – and that overall, the two days of protests had gone smoothly.   

The new Papagayo Marina, located on the Pacific Ocean, on which construction began at the end of August, will allow 370 boats and hopefully will give work to approximately 800 persons.

The work, which in the first phase will have a cost of $15 million, is being constructed in Manzanillo Bay, in the designated tourism magnet of Papagayo.  The work began as soon as the Town councils of Liberia approved the initial stage. Ecodesarrollo Papagayo started the earthworks to prepare the area, confirmed the Mayor of Liberia, Ricardo Samper.

The construction will happen in two stages.  In the first one there will be 160 boat positions of tie, administrative and government offices. Later on, 210 new boat positions of tie will be constructed, as well as restaurants, commercial and fuel supply areas.

“This project has a concession area of 44 hectares and it will have a capacity for 370 boats”, declared Roberto Cooper, the director of the Papagayo Marina.

The Marina can be used for ships of 35 to more than 100 feet of length (measure of a ship from the prow up to the stern).

Job Opportunities

The project has the support of the Liberian authorities because of the expectation of generation of new sources of work. According to preliminary information, Marina Papagayo will offer employment to approximately 800 persons.  However, training is needed in specific areas related to the maintenance and arrangement of boats.

“We must integrate ourselves to this activity to obtain sources of work for our population; because of that, we talked with the developers of the project, Ecodesarrollo Papagayo, in order for them to help us in the training of the personnel according to their needs”, said the Mayor Samper.

The company Ecodesarrollo Papagayo added that the employments that a Marina generates are: boat captains, assistants, safety and administrative staff, attendees of wharves, operators, among others.

- from La Nación October 13, 2006. Page 18A