The Salvadoran Congress approved reforms to the Access to Public Information Law that strip the autonomous access to public information institute of the power to declassify secret documents and order public institutions to respond to requests for information, according to El Faro.
Deputies from the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN in Spanish), Gana, and the National Coalition Party approved the amendments to the law last Friday, Feb. 8. The law was originally passed in December 2010 but the institute that would guarantee the enforcement of the law was never established. With the new reforms, the institute would only be able to recommend the release of public information instead of the authority to give orders to other government institutions.
The approved changes still need to be signed into law by President Mauricio Funes, who, since May 2011, has failed to appoint commissioners to the Access to Public Information Institute, according to El Faro.
The Association of Salvadoran Journalists asked President Funes to veto the reforms and rectify his commitment to the right to access public information because the reforms run counter to recommendations from the United Nations and Organization of American States' special rapporteurs for freedom of expression, and the principles of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe for Media Freedom.
In an attempt to reverse the approved changes and quell the outcry from journalists and civil society organizations, FMLN Vice President Orestes Ortez asked President Funes to veto the reforms, according to Diario de Hoy.
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.
