The Congress rejected a special legislative commission to investigate Canal 7 and La Nación: on March 4th, 2014, their owners and journalists held a meeting with politicians from Partido de Liberación Nacional (PLN). In this meeting, it was decided to remove Johnny Araya as presidential candidate during the 2014 election campaign.
The initiative, promoted by legislator Víctor Morales Zapata, from Partido de Acción Ciudadana (PAC), had 25 votes against and 17 in favor.
The controversial meeting was attended by René Picado and Ignacio Santos, president of Televisora de Costa Rica and director of Telenoticias, respectively, as well as by Manuel Francisco Jiménez and Armando González, former executive president and former general editor of Grupo Nación.
One of the objectives of the commission was to identify the links among the participants, in order to discover the reasons, scope and possible implications they might have on the freedom of press.
crhoy.com