Puerto Rico

In this period there were selective and vicious threats and verbal attacks from people in government against independent news media and journalists. The president of the Puerto Rican Senate, Thomas Rivera Schatz, of the governing party, has been issuing threats with phrases such as “I’m watching you” and criminal investigations against the business activities of GFR Media, the group owning El Nuevo Día, Primera Hora and other media, in reprisal for investigative reporting that has revealed wrongdoing among senators belonging to his party, such as, for example, in the signing of contracts with the government. Senator Roger Iglesias, today chairman of the Judiciary Committee, took out contracts through a company he owned until becoming a legislator last year. The insults aimed at press executives and journalists, particularly of El Nuevo Día, are hurled from the Senate by its president. There is also continuing an increasingly marked tendency in government agencies to deny media and journalists access to public information; also, selective political discrimination and obstruction.are being applied against El Nuevo Día The News Photographers Association, Photo-Journalism Workshop, Journalists Association, Overseas Press Club and several media are engaged in an intense effort for the Supreme Court to amend part of its Judicial Ethics Rules and allow news photographers to cover court trials.