CPJ, partners urge Puerto Rico to reject amendment restricting information access
The Committee to Protect Journalists, International Press Institute, and Reporters Without Borders, led a coalition of eight press freedom organizations in a joint statement calling for the rejection of Puerto Rico’s Senate Bill 63, which would severely limit the territory’s constitutional right to access public information, one of the strongest in the United States. If…
New Puerto Rico law threatens jail time for spreading ‘false information’ about COVID-19
Washington, D.C., April 8, 2020 — Puerto Rican authorities should guarantee that journalists can cover the COVID-19 pandemic without fear of government retaliation, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Reporter Bárbara Figueroa Rosa on covering Puerto Rico’s coronavirus outbreak
In the three years since Hurricane Maria hit the island, Puerto Rico has experienced a financial, political, and public health crisis, but reporter Bárbara Figueroa Rosa told CPJ that these events “have no comparison” to the impact the coronavirus pandemic could have on the U.S. territory.
New laws obstruct work of investigative journalists in Puerto Rico
In July 2019, anti-government protesters gathered on the streets of Puerto Rico, motivated in part by the work of investigative journalists who had obtained and published over 900 messages exchanged by then Governor Ricardo Rosselló and his allies that disparaged political opponents and the island’s citizens. Before Rosselló gave in to public pressure to resign…