By Ingrid Bachmann
El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes sent back to the Legislative Assembly a bill that would create a public information access law, asking for various modifications and clarifications, reported El Faro.
The president's seven observations about the law are more about recommendations than an outright veto, El Faro explained. Congress members will have to evaluate whether to include Funes' suggestions or create a new document entirely, added La Página.
Among the president's recommendations is the creation of a regulation detailing what information from private entities can be considered public and how information will be made available to the public, explained Prensa Gráfica.
The president also asked for a 12-month period before the law goes into effect, rather than 30 days as suggested in the bill Congress unanimously approved in December, according to El Mundo.
The president of the commission of Congressional Legislation, opposition member Guillermo Ávila Qüehl, criticized the extension from 30 days to 12 months. “It gives the impression that [Funes] does not want an information access law," he said as quoted by ElSalvador.com.
For more information, see this Knight Center map about information access laws throughout Latin America.
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.
