The president of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, vetoed reforms to the Access to Public Information Law that would have weakened the institution overseeing the law's implementation, according to the website El Faro, on Friday, Feb. 15.
A week before, El Salvador's legislative assembly approved reforms stripping power from the Access to Public Information Institute, leaving it only able to make recommendations on the release of information as opposed to ordering government agencies to comply with requests.
Legislators accepted the president's veto with 52 vetoes in favor, one against and another abstaining, nullifying the approved changes, reported the EFE news agency.
The Salvadoran Association of Journalists celebrated the president's decision and urged Funes to nominate commissioners to the institute, which has been without a board since its creation.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
