Parmenio Medina Pérez
Everyone who decides to become a journalist should know that this profession is the third most dangerous career choice. You can receive death threats or even be murdered. This happens because journalists say and search for things which are government or individual people’s secrets. This also occurs because they tell the truth and denounce things like corruption. Parmenio Medina Perez’s story is a great example of the outcome for a journalist who works like this.
He was a Colombian radio broadcaster and journalist, who was born on January 2, 1939 in Medellín, Colombia.
Medina worked in Costa Rica, a country long regarded as one of the freest and most democratic in Latin America, and was profoundly shocked by the July 7 murder of veteran journalist Parmenio Medina Pérez, the first assassination of a journalist in the country's recent history.
According to the Committee To Protect Journalists, Medina, producer and host of the weekly radio program "La Patada" (The Kick), was murdered at around 4:30 p.m. on the afternoon of July 7, 2001. by unknown assailants who shot him three times at close range with a .38-caliber weapon, once in the back and twice in the head. The attack occurred just outside the journalist's home in the town of Santo Domingo de Heredia, about six miles northwest of San José. Medina was rushed to the Calderón Guardia Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Medina's 28-year-old program often denounced official corruption and earned him numerous threats. Starting in 1999, on-air accusations he made about alleged fiscal improprieties at a local Catholic radio station led to its closure and an investigation of its former director.
Two months before his murder, Medina received death threats in connection with the accusations, and unknown attackers fired bullets at his house. Although Medina had been under police protection, he asked that it be lifted just days before his death.
This horrible crime is the first case in more than 15 years of a journalist killed in Costa Rica because of his or her work.
The public demanded justice, and the murder investigation began swiftly, however, it did not produce major results. Soon, a veil of secrecy covered the endeavor. In August, a consortium of individuals and civil society organizations launched the Frente Ciudadano contra la Impunidad (Citizens' Front Against Impunity) to pressure authorities to solve the case.
On January 7—exactly six months after the murder--the San Josébased daily La Nación quoted a Frente coordinator, Albino Vargas, as saying, "We're convinced there are political, business, and religious influences that are interfering so the truth about the crime won't surface." According to the same article, the Organization of Judicial Investigation, Costa Rica's law enforcement agency, said that even though more than 100 people have been interviewed and many leads have been discarded, no details can be disclosed because the matter remains under investigation.
This tragedy also had a positive impact. Medina's murder boosted efforts to reform Costa Rica's antiquated media laws. Two days after the murder, two deputies presented plans to the Legislative Assembly to create a commission mandated to investigate the laws.
Everyone who decides to become a journalist should know that this profession is the third most dangerous career choice. You can receive death threats or even be murdered. This happens because journalists say and search for things which are government or individual people’s secrets. This also occurs because they tell the truth and denounce things like corruption. Parmenio Medina Perez’s story is a great example of the outcome for a journalist who works like this.
He was a Colombian radio broadcaster and journalist, who was born on January 2, 1939 in Medellín, Colombia.
Medina worked in Costa Rica, a country long regarded as one of the freest and most democratic in Latin America, and was profoundly shocked by the July 7 murder of veteran journalist Parmenio Medina Pérez, the first assassination of a journalist in the country's recent history.
According to the Committee To Protect Journalists, Medina, producer and host of the weekly radio program "La Patada" (The Kick), was murdered at around 4:30 p.m. on the afternoon of July 7, 2001. by unknown assailants who shot him three times at close range with a .38-caliber weapon, once in the back and twice in the head. The attack occurred just outside the journalist's home in the town of Santo Domingo de Heredia, about six miles northwest of San José. Medina was rushed to the Calderón Guardia Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Medina's 28-year-old program often denounced official corruption and earned him numerous threats. Starting in 1999, on-air accusations he made about alleged fiscal improprieties at a local Catholic radio station led to its closure and an investigation of its former director.
Two months before his murder, Medina received death threats in connection with the accusations, and unknown attackers fired bullets at his house. Although Medina had been under police protection, he asked that it be lifted just days before his death.
This horrible crime is the first case in more than 15 years of a journalist killed in Costa Rica because of his or her work.
The public demanded justice, and the murder investigation began swiftly, however, it did not produce major results. Soon, a veil of secrecy covered the endeavor. In August, a consortium of individuals and civil society organizations launched the Frente Ciudadano contra la Impunidad (Citizens' Front Against Impunity) to pressure authorities to solve the case.
On January 7—exactly six months after the murder--the San Josébased daily La Nación quoted a Frente coordinator, Albino Vargas, as saying, "We're convinced there are political, business, and religious influences that are interfering so the truth about the crime won't surface." According to the same article, the Organization of Judicial Investigation, Costa Rica's law enforcement agency, said that even though more than 100 people have been interviewed and many leads have been discarded, no details can be disclosed because the matter remains under investigation.
This tragedy also had a positive impact. Medina's murder boosted efforts to reform Costa Rica's antiquated media laws. Two days after the murder, two deputies presented plans to the Legislative Assembly to create a commission mandated to investigate the laws.