When Ecuador approved the Organic Law of Communication (LOC for its acronym in Spanish) in 2013, different organizations inside and outside the country expressed concern about the negative effects that the standard could have on freedom of expression.
More than 100 countries in the world have a law in their national legislation that allows access to public information. Latin America is the region with developing countries that has advanced most in this respect, even surpassing certain aspects of the laws of European Union countries, according to the recent Unesco report, "Access to Information: Lessons from Latin America.”
Daily obstacles motivated Panamanian journalists Ana Graciela Méndez and Alfonso Grimaldo to create El Tabulario – a project, launched at the end of May, which collects, analyzes and disseminates public data with the aim of promoting transparency in the country.
While Latin American community radios have received greater recognition in their countries since the mid-2000s, they remain limited and discriminated against in practice and by law.
Civil society representatives from Uruguay called on their government to effectively implement the Law of Audiovisual Communication Services (SCA for its acronym in Spanish) and involve them in the development and implementation of the guidelines regulating it.
Civil servants who do not comply with the Law on Access to Information (LAI) in Brazil are not punished, according to a recent report from Article 19 Brazil, an NGO that defends freedom of expression and the right to information. The report was launched in celebration of the five-year law, which became effective on May 16.
The controversial Peruvian bill that seeks to regulate who can hold management positions in media outlets was withdrawn. However, the authors of the project, the congress members of the party Fuerza Popular, Úrsula Letona and Alejandra Aramayo, proposed a new version, La República reported.
Despite the fact that the security of journalists has become a matter of concern for international organizations such as the UN, which even proclaimed a day to encourage the fight against impunity in crimes against journalists, the statistics attacks against these professionals do not appear to be decreasing.
With the goal of preventing misinformation, Jaime Rodríguez Calderón, Mexican governor of the northern state of Nuevo León, said he would ask local lawmakers for a law that would force journalists to reveal their sources, according to Proceso.
The Peruvian government recently formalized the creation of the National Authority for Transparency and Access to Public Information, whose purpose is to ensure the proper application of the Law on Transparency and Access to Public Information, enacted 13 years ago, reported newspaper La República.