The draconian sentencing in the Silk Road criminal case and the quixotic Nicaragua Interoceanic Canal project have something in common; something other than their connection to Costa Rica, their respective controversy, and their collective absurdity.

Recent reports suggests that the respective governments handling the two controversial situations mentioned above have imposed measures to silence specific press outlets on some issues. Why are the United States and Nicaragua, two constitutional republics where press freedom is supposed to play a major part of the democratic process, attempting to silence journalists?

Both cases have been covered by The Costa Rica due to their relation to Costa Rica: the convicted Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was recently sentenced to life in prison, spent some of his younger years in our country, and the Nicaragua Canal was once planned to begin right at our northern border.

Let’s first take a look at the Silk Road sentencing mess and how the U.S. government reacted to news and commentary published on a libertarian website. The following comes from Reason.com:

Reason, a magazine dedicated to “Free Minds and Free Markets,” has been barred by an order from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from speaking publicly about a grand jury subpoena that court sent to Reason.com.

 

The subpoena demanded the records of six people who left hyperbolic comments at the website about the federal judge who oversaw the controversial conviction of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. Shortly after the subpoena was issued, the government issued a gag order prohibiting Reason not only from discussing the matter but even acknowledging the existence of the subpoena or the gag order itself.

You can read the entire affair by clicking on the Reason.com link above, which also contains a copy of the motion to the court to vacate the gag order.

Now let’s take a look at Part 4 of an investigative report recently published by The Miami Herald about the Nicaragua Canal:

[President Daniel] Ortega has not given a press conference since coming to office in 2007. [His wife Rosario] Murillo, who speaks on state radio and television several days a week, has a strategy toward media not controlled by Nicaragua’s government: Don’t talk to them.

 

As chief spokeswoman for Ortega, Murillo has no publicly listed telephone number. One can call multiple branches of government and find no way to reach her.

 

“The government hasn’t given that much information, and that keeps everybody a little worried about what’s going to happen,” said Michael Healy Lacayo, head of the Union of Agricultural Producers of Nicaragua.

The Miami Herald investigation continues to explain how police officers have threatened and forcibly expelled journalists from various countries covering protests against the Nicaragua Canal, which have been covered by The Costa Rica Star. Furthermore, the government of Nicaragua have also denied entry to a cartoonist from the French publication Charlie Hebdo, which was the subject of a horrific terrorist attack earlier this year.

For the record, The Costa Rica Star has been able to freely report on the items above without government interference. Although Costa Rica enjoys a high level of press freedom in the Americas, concerted attempts at suppression have taken place in the past.