access to information

VERDICT: FALSE

The legislation restricts the right of access to public information. It would allow government agencies up to 50 business days to deliver documents exceeding 300 pages.

Since 2022, more than 80 students have learned through workshops how to verify information, identify reliable sources, and analyze how gender and racial identity are portrayed in the media to understand how those representations shape public perception of a group or community. They have also explored how to create podcasts and use rap as a narrative tool.

Transparency has become a worn-out slogan, invoked by politicians to create the illusion of openness and accountability. Even worse, it has been weaponized to undermine the value of diversity in a distorted version of reality, as in the Trump regime’s case. In practice, politicians and officials say one thing and do another, or announce “achievements” while concealing the how and why to avoid public scrutiny.

The agency director’s decision limits public oversight, warns organizations advocating for transparency and the responsible use of public funds.

San Juan, PR – The Puerto Rico State Elections Commission (CEE) is under scrutiny for failing to address multiple information requests related to issues during the electoral process. These requests, submitted by journalists Damaris Suárez and Vanessa Colón Almenas of the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI), remain unanswered despite the requirements outlined in the Transparency […]

San Juan – The Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) has filed a legal motion to compel the Department of Treasury and its acting secretary, Nelson J. Pérez Méndez, to release invoices from an advertising agency that have been withheld, ensuring compliance with his ministerial duty of transparency in public management. “We have exhausted all available […]

San Juan, PR – The Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI, in Spanish) today sued the Puerto Rico Land Authority (ATPR, in Spanish) for ignoring a request for access to public information about the composition and minutes of its Governing Board.    Since January 23, 2024, journalist and founder of Bonita Radio, Carmen Enid Acevedo, who received […]

Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism has had to go to court three times in the past five years for the DRNA to hand over public documents.

San Juan – The Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI, in Spanish) filed a mandamus against the Puerto Rico Office for Socioeconomic and Community Development (ODSEC, in Spanish) and the Special Communities Perpetual Trust to demand access to public information related to the ownership of community centers, recreational facilities, or sports facilities in Puerto Rico’s special […]

San Juan – A special petition for access to public information was filed this Wednesday in the San Juan Superior Court against the Puerto Rico Health Insurance Services Administration (ASES, in Spanish) for failing to comply with a request from the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI, in Spanish) regarding the government’s health insurance plan. On […]

The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston rejected the Fiscal Control Board for Puerto Rico claim that due to “sovereign immunity” it did not have to submit to the right of access to information recognized under the Commonwealth’s Constitution and deliver documents on their processes requested by the Center for Investigative […]

The Center for Investigative Journalism and journalist Omar Alfonso, editor of regional newspaper La Perla del Sur, on Tuesday filed a Mandamus on the constitutional right of access to public information to petition documents related to the renegotiation of the contract between coal ash company AES and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.

During the past years, Puerto Rico has been witnessing a mise en scene in which the Fiscal Control Board says, “We have to cut here” and the government tells the press “I am not going to cut anything.” The net result is that many of the cuts have indeed been made, seen and felt. As […]