By Ingrid Bachmann
Something is wrong with access to information if the body responsible for overseeing the law that protects information access in a country asks the government to clearly state that it doesn't intend to impede transparency. This is what has happened in Mexico, where the Federal Institute of Information Access (IFAI) called on the Secretary of Government to ratify that lack of transparency and accountability will not be reinstated, reported El Universal and La Jornada.
IFAI has little power to force public entities to turn over public information. The Court of Fiscal and Administrative Justice has ruled against several resolutions of IFAI (that are supposed to be definitive), explained Miguel Pulido in a column in El Universal. Further, according to IFAI, the court is incompetent.
The result is the weakening of accountability and transparency in the government of Felipe Calderón, added Miguel Carbonell in another columns in El Universal. “The lack of commitment from the Calderón administration toward transparency is demonstrated by action and omission," Carbonell said. By action for pushing regressive and harmful initiatives, and by omission for not committing to foward-thinking policies that guarantee transparency.
“And it's not that before we were very transparent, but now we are worse, violating the law with support from the authorities,” Pulido said.
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.
