There is no doubt that the love for peace and democracy that Ticos share makes Costa Rica a special place. Unfortunately, the arcane body of laws, codes, statutes, and regulations in our country sometimes contradicts the will and sentiment of the citizenry.

Given our political and civic history, Costa Rica should be a shelter for press freedom and whistleblowers, but according to a recent news article in the digital newspaper El Pais, our laws and regulations are currently threatening government employees who leaked information to the press with regard to the tax anomalies of certain public officials.

The headline of the article published on the web pages of El Pais reads “A witch hunt in Costa Rica against revelations by the press.” The article tells of the actions by two legislators from the ruling National Liberation Party (PLN) who pointed the finger at a news media outlet and unnamed employees of the Ministry of the Treasury. At the heart of the issue is the investigative report published by La Nacion that led to the resignation of former Ministry of the Treasury Fernando Herrero, his wife, and the former Chief Tax Collector Francisco Villalobos.

The information provided to La Nacion came from an electronic source, the System of Integrated Revenue Information (Spanish acronym: SIAT). Authorized users of SIAT are warned that leaking tax information contained therein is prohibited by law and thereby punishable with up to ten years in prison.

The Chief Government Prosecutor has accepted the complaint of the two PLN legislators and has ordered an inquiry. A legislator from the Civic Action Party (PAC) publicly decried the complaint, calling it a slam against freedom of the press. She also reminded the National Assembly of the need for a transparent SIAT, particularly when dealing with the tax information of public officials.

Members of the National Government Employees Union (ANEP) are dismayed at the complaint filed by the legislators,which they consider a form of reprisal -regardless of what the law says. These members have taken to Facebook to express their opinions anonymously, since they are also plotting to go back into the SIAT and exposing even more tax irregularities among public officials.

The laws and regulations that keep tax information kept in the SIAT confidential, particularly information pertaining to public officials, goes the democratic traditions of Costa Rica. The problem is further exacerbated by our Code of Criminal Procedure (PDF), whereby a conflict is created in Article 281, which states that government employees, public officials and health care professionals shall become whistleblowers when they become aware of violations of the law. There is one caveat in that article, however, as that obligation is vacated if the act of giving away information could get the whistleblower in legal trouble -such as in the case described above.

Costa Rica is not the only country where whistleblowers are being suppressed

In Germany, the Bundestag has rejected various legislative proposals that seek to give whistleblowers more protections, even after a ghastly case in which a nurse blew the whistle on her employers who were abusing elderly patients at a nursing home.

In the United States, a CIA agent is facing 50 years of prison time for revealing several troubling practices of the American intelligence and defense communities, from torture to questionable secret surveillance performed by the government on their own people.

At a time when the United Nations and human rights groups are seeking greater transparency in an effort to combat corruption and other issues that have resulted in wars and the meltdown of global economies, whistleblowers play an important role. Suppressing whistleblowers and journalists from exposing the excesses of government only causes would-be informants to go deeper underground, where they can plot more damaging disclosures.