Ombudsman labels La Prensa fine disproportionate.

Ombudsman  Ricardo Vargas, described as "disproportionate" the action of a civil court judge in ordering Corporación La Prensa SA to pay $ 300,000 to prosecutor Argentina Barrera, for reporting his removal from office.
The sentence was handed down by the second civil judge Cheng Miriam Aguilar and La Prensa was also ordered to pay $ 51,000 in legal fees and to publish the text of the ruling.

The origin of the suit was two pieces of news published by La Prensa on August 30, 2005, whose main source was a press release of the Public Ministry (MP), which officially announced the removal from office of Barrera, his assistant and the clerk of the prosecution office. This press release was reported also by seven other national newspapers. Barrera made his claim only against La Prensa.

"These issues can end up producing self-censorship, nothing suitable in an environment of freedom," said Vargas. "I think the reaction of the prosecutor has more to do with the operator than the content of the news," he said.

The news item was titled "Attorney continues to hunt corrupt" because it was reported that the Barrier was the last of eight firings of prosecutors in the MP after internal disciplinary processes.

It cited the case of Nedelka Diaz, Edwin Alvarez, Archimedes Sáez, Rolando Rodríguez Cedeño and Giovanni Olmos, among others.
 AttorneyAna Matilde Gomez, said she was determined to combat corruption wherever it comes. In fact, in her first week as prosecutor, Gomez (now suspended from the position) created a secretariat whose main function was to investigate allegations of corruption throughout the rest of MP.

According to Vargas the question is: Was there intent to fraud by the means to affect another, knowing that he was not truthful information?. "If the news was collected from an official statement and was transmitted correctly, there was no actual malice," he reflected. "The prosecutor had her chance to give an opinion. I think it was safeguarded as an objective report”.

La Prensa, in addition to the press release of MP, reported the reaction of Barrera, published his reply, informed the decision of the Court which ordered his reinstatement and subsequent released enforceable within the MP.

The newspaper appealed the judge’s ruling. So did Barrera, who in his original suit requested the payment of one million dollars, not $300 000 as granted by Cheng Aguilar. The case now goes to the First Civil Superior Court.