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.
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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 and Expedited Procedure for Access to Public Information Act. As a result, the CPI has taken legal action to obtain the requested data. “All the requested information is public and of high interest to the people of Puerto Rico. To address public distrust in the electoral process, the CEE must be transparent and provide the requested information promptly.
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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 administrative remedies to obtain the requested information through the Treasury’s Communications Office without success. We fulfilled our duty to request the invoices over two months ago. With no other remedy available, we have turned to the Court of First Instance, San Juan Division,” said Carla Minet, the CPI’s executive director. The CPI’s initial effort to obtain the information began on September 25, 2024, when its journalist José Manuel Encarnación Martínez sent an email to Vilmar Trinta Negrón, director of the Treasury’s Communications Office.
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 a scholarship from the CPI Journalism Training Institute, requested by email from Irving Rodríguez executive director of the ATPR the minutes of the Governing Board meetings, the composition of the Board, and who have been its secretaries from 2018 to the present, . After several days without getting a response, the journalist went to the Land Authority headquarters to follow up. She was told it was necessary to submit her request for information, again, in writing. After making the requested arrangements and informing at least three agency officials about the request, in person and in writing, including the executive director of the ATPR, Irving Rodríguez, Acevedo waited for several days without getting a response and then called the agency several times until they told her again that they were working on her request. But as of today, more than 10 weeks after the original request, the requested information has not been 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.
