Right of response of the President College of Journalists

Response to the referee Richard Molina
Yanancy Noguera Calderon
President Colper

As president of the College of Journalists and Professionals in Collective Communication Sciences that joins us, I will always be willing to attend to your requests, as I did today, and this is demonstrated in my words sent via WhatsApp this Friday, January 13.

Given the lack of definition of his requests and my impossibility of having the interview today (Friday, January 13) at 8 pm and on the weekend, I proposed to send the request to the email address of the Board of Directors in order to evaluate which other member I could meet your request on weekends. His request was never denied or stated that a board agreement or anything like that was required.

I also reiterate our willingness to address your concerns as a collegiate as demonstrated yesterday by the prosecutor who contacted you to find out first-hand about your situation and put us to order.

In order to clarify what we really talked about, I would like to share the messages that we had this Friday and that, in no way, confirm the headline of your note.

9:08 am today, Friday, January 13 – Richard Molina (RM) asks me for criteria on the balance of information for a video by an anonymous author that mentions information about La Nación and the news figures of the year, and that praises President Rodrigo Chaves .

9:10 – I answer (YN): I can’t comment on this. I have no reference to this nor can I have it.

9:10 – RM: Do you consider Colper’s presidency evidence of a lack of information balance?

9:10 – YN: I don’t understand the question (I understand that you are asking me if I think there was a lack of information balance regarding what is said in the video). It is difficult to comment on a video without authorship.

9:10 – RM: How will Colper look for that search for informational balance in the media?

9:11 – YN: Colper must ensure responsible and ethical work in journalism. After indicating that interviewing by WhatsApp is not convenient, we agreed to a conversation via Zoom at 3 pm.

9:18 – RM: He asks me to be at 4:30 pm together with Deputy Pilar Cisneros. The topic would be the informative balance of the media and the role in society.

9:22 – YN: I ask if it’s “live”.

9:23 – RM: He asks me to change the time to 8 pm.

9:40 – YN: I tell you that I can’t at 8 pm.

9:41 – RM: He tells me that Laura Brenes, press officer for the Presidential House, would also be there, and that then it would be the weekend.

At that time, after its multiple changes, the objective was to talk about the informational balance of the media and the role in society with a deputy and a person in charge of government communication, on the weekend.

This week, with the arrival of the new board of directors at the College, requests for interviews have been sent directly to the secretary of the Board, with the purpose of organizing the agendas. When I asked him to do that, I insisted that I was not rejecting the interview. “This is how we have received requests and we respond and coordinate quickly” (written by me at 9:59 am today).

That is the refusal detailed by The Guardian.

I spent 50 minutes answering your questions and trying to coordinate the space for the requested interview, according to your changes. In advance, I had a family commitment scheduled for the requested day and time (Friday 8 pm), these commitments that I assume with my family are sacred to me.

Resolving the issue of the interview was so simple, it was just a matter of coordinating the process so that the Colper secretary could identify if someone else could attend the interview on a weekend or arrange it for Monday morning.

His solution was to write a note in which he makes it appear that I refused, without justification, to attend the interview.

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Editor’s Note: This private conversation between two people was published without authorization and also omitted that the position of the outlet was to place itself under the orders of the President of Colper at the time she considered it appropriate in order to establish bridges between civil society, the community politics and Communication professionals in the midst of a critical situation of confrontation between the Executive and 3 media outlets.

That was exactly the idea of ​​calling for a constructive dialogue with the President of Colper, the distinguished journalist and congresswoman Pilar Cisneros, and the communication director of the Presidential House, Laura Brenes.

We attach two audios from our Director Richard Molina where the willingness of the President of Colper is confirmed.