The Tico Times covers Costa Rica for an audience that includes residents, foreign nationals living here, business owners and people deciding whether to visit or move. Much of what we publish carries practical weight. This page sets out the standards we hold ourselves to, so readers can judge our work against them.
Independence
No advertiser, sponsor, donor or commercial partner has any say over what we cover, how we cover it, or whether a story runs. Commercial staff do not review editorial copy before publication and do not sit in on editorial decisions. Nobody buys their way into our news coverage, and nobody buys their way out of it.
We publish sponsored content, and it is always clearly labeled as such where it appears. Sponsored material is not written by our newsroom and is not presented in a way designed to be mistaken for reporting.
Affiliate and referral links
Some pages on this site carry affiliate or referral links, and we earn a commission or referral fee when a reader clicks through or transacts. This currently includes a prediction-market widget that appears on certain categories of coverage, and occasional retail links. Where such a link appears, we identify it as an affiliate link in the article.
These arrangements do not determine what we cover or what we recommend. We do not choose a subject because it carries a commission, and we do not soften a story to protect one. If a product or service we link to is bad, we say so. Readers pay nothing extra when they use these links, and readers who prefer not to use them lose nothing.
We also run classified advertising and real estate listings, and we report on the Costa Rican property market. Our coverage of housing costs, construction, foreign buyers and market conditions is not shaped by who advertises with us. An advertiser is not entitled to favorable coverage and is not shielded from unfavorable coverage.
Gifts, press trips and comped travel
We do not accept free or discounted travel, accommodation, tours, meals or experiences in exchange for coverage, and we do not accept them in the hope of coverage. This applies to staff and to contributors writing for us. Where we cover a hotel, tour operator, restaurant or attraction, we paid our own way or we did not go.
This matters more in Costa Rica than it might elsewhere. Tourism is central to the economy and to what our readers ask us about, and the offer of a comped stay is routine. Declining it is what allows a recommendation from us to mean something.
Conflicts of interest
Anyone writing for us discloses to an editor any financial interest, family relationship, employment history or personal involvement that a reader might reasonably think affected the story. Where a conflict cannot be avoided, we disclose it in the article. Where it is serious enough to compromise the work, someone else writes the story.
Sourcing and attribution
We attribute claims to named authorities, institutions and documents. We verify against primary sources before publishing, meaning the ministry, agency, court file, official or dataset the information originates from rather than other coverage of it.
Where information comes from a single source and cannot be confirmed elsewhere, we either hold it or say plainly that it is unconfirmed. Where official bodies report conflicting figures for the same thing, we attribute each figure to the body that issued it rather than reconciling them into one number. Preliminary figures, including shelter counts, casualty numbers, case totals and seizure valuations, are identified as preliminary until a named authority confirms them.
When an official or institution asserts something, we report that they asserted it. An attributed claim is not presented as independently established fact.
We grant anonymity to a source only where the information is significant, cannot be obtained on the record, and the source faces a real risk of harm or retaliation. The decision rests with an editor, not the writer alone, and we tell readers why anonymity was granted.
Crime and legal coverage
People detained in Costa Rica are presumed innocent, and our language reflects that at every stage. We write that a person was detained rather than arrested where that is the accurate description, we distinguish between an investigation, a charge and a conviction, and we do not describe someone as guilty of anything a court has not found. We do not publish images showing the faces of people who have been detained but not convicted.
We follow cases forward where we can. A person cleared or released after we reported their detention is entitled to have that reported too.
Images
We use images we have the right to use, and we credit them accurately. Photographs supplied by institutions are used under the terms those institutions set, and where written permission is required we obtain it before publication. We do not present an image as depicting something it does not depict, and we label illustrative or file images as such.
Original work
We do not publish other outlets’ work as our own. Reporting that originates elsewhere and cannot be independently confirmed is credited to whoever did it. We do not lift wording, structure or research and present it as ours.
Accountability
We get things wrong sometimes, and when we do we correct them in public rather than quietly. How we handle errors, clarifications and updates is set out in our Corrections Policy. Questions about this policy can go to editor@ticotimes.net.
