By Ingrid Bachmann
For three days in a row, Puerto Rico's Senate President, Thomas Rivera Schatz, prohibited the press from entering the Senate floor, reported El Nuevo Día. This was an unprecedented event in the Senate's history.
Media managers and journalistic organizations, and even groups like the Puerto Rican chapter of Amnesty International and analysts, have criticized Rivera Schatz for what they consider to be an attack against press freedom and citizens' right to be informed. Professional guilds also announced they will take the matter to the Supreme Court.
Rivera Schatz argued that his decision was a way to maintain order during legislative sessions, according to Primera Hora, and in the last few days he made both reporters and photographers leave. In an editorial, El Nuevo Día questioned: “Who gave the senate president authority to dictate where a journalist's job begins or ends? What is the senate president scared of, or worried about?"
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.
