La Fortaleza

This is the second lawsuit against the agency under the administration of Jenniffer González Colón for failing to provide information to the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo.

Carlos Bermúdez Urbina, a longtime adviser and friend of Gov. Jenniffer González Colón, works behind the scenes on her public image while his company holds more than $626,000 in government contracts.

The allegations made by former Economic Development and Commerce Secretary Sebastián Negrón Reichard have placed under scrutiny a company that has expanded across multiple government agencies in recent years.

“The silences of the law have, or can have, social consequences,” writes Efrén Rivera Ramos, a professor, lawyer, and journalist. That is why, when courts remain silent in the face of attacks on fundamental rights, the effect can be to allow injustices that undermine their institutional legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

The appellate ruling conflicts with the position of press organizations and an earlier lower-court decision.

The Puerto Rico Supreme Court denied petitions filed by Gov. Jenniffer González Colón seeking review of a lower court ruling that found the requirement that journalists hold credentials issued by the Puerto Rico Department of State violates freedom of the press.

With great fanfare, Francisco Domenech, Puerto Rico’s chief of staff, announced new rules governing lobbying before the island’s government. But a year later, both agencies and lobbyists are flouting the protocol.

The unfounded and at times violent attacks on journalists and news organizations in the United States, Puerto Rico, and around the world have become part of everyday life. Fewer critical voices are challenging those in power. That comes as no surprise: data from regional and global nongovernmental organizations show mounting threats to press freedom.

VERDICT: FALSE

The debate over who qualifies as “press” —and who gets to call themselves a journalist— has stirred controversy for years in Puerto Rico and in the United States. So has the legitimacy of the so-called “official” press pass issued by the Puerto Rico Department of State. Most local reporters, including the team at the Centro […]

As part of Press Week, we debut this new column dedicated to reflecting on and promoting understanding of press freedom in Puerto Rico and around the world, as well as the challenges journalists face in telling their stories.

On July 29, 2019, during the events of the Summer of ‘19, in a cafe in Guaynabo, three FBI agents interviewed Raymond Cruz Hernández, at the time administrator of Ricardo Rosselló Nevares’s political committee. The Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI, in Spanish), in alliance with Las Noticias de TeleOnce’s Investigative Unit and Metro Puerto Rico, […]