The 2016 World Press Freedom Index reflects the intensity of the attacks on journalistic freedom and independence by governments, ideologies and private-sector interests during the past year. Thankfully, Costa Rica enjoys a great degree of press freedom; for this reason, Reporters Without Borders ranks our country as number six on the Index.

Seen as a benchmark throughout the world, the Index ranks 180 countries according to the freedom allowed journalists. It also includes indicators of the level of media freedom violations in each region. These show that Europe (with 19.8 points) still has the freest media, followed distantly by Africa (36.9), which for the first time overtook the Americas (37.1), a region where violence against journalists is on the rise. Asia (43.8) and Eastern Europe/Central Asia (48.4) follow, while North Africa/Middle East (50.8) is still the region where journalists are most subjected to constraints of every kind.

According to the Index, Costa Rica enjoys the most press freedom in Central America and Latin America. In regional terms, Jamaica is ranked at number 10 on the Index; it bears noting that Costa Rica and Jamaica have been working on strengthening diplomatic ties and collaboration in recent years.

The top three spots in the Index are occupied by Finland, the Kingdom of The Netherlands, and Norway.

Reporters Without Borders describes the situation in Costa Rica as follows:

The Latin American country with the best record on respecting human rights and free expression, Costa Rica is remarkable exception in a region characterized by violent crime and corruption. The enlightened media legislation and the significant level of freedom enjoyed by journalists have nonetheless been marred by certain negative practices such as the spying on the Diario Extra newspaper by the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) in 2014.

As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, the OIJ was thoroughly embarrassed by the Diario Extra scandal, which included revelations about an informant planted within the daily tabloid.

In the end, various paid informants planted within OIJ released muckraking reports to Diario Extra, which in turn published a series of news stories about spying, corruption, malfeasance, and ineptitude at the agency.