In recent months, the number of cases in which reporters’ and photographers’ work has been blocked has not decreased compared with earlier periods, which implies that there has not been enough progress in press freedom and access to information. Political and government organizations sometimes fall into practices of coercion or obstruction of information.
There are barriers to free access to information of public interest, especially on the part of the mayors of the 10 municipalities in Greater San Salvador, who resist giving information about their financial status and the handling of taxpayers’ money.
The daily El Mundo questioned Carlos Rivas Zamora, the mayor of El Salvador, because he has a closed-door policy and responds slowly to requests for interviews. The newspaper reported that the Defense Ministry did not give information about the Salvadorean soldiers in Iraq, and the president’s Technical Office refused to give information about the nation’s computer policies.
On March 19, during the counting of votes from the March 16 municipal and legislative election, officials of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) prevented journalist Sergio Arauz from entering the room where the final vote count for Libertad province was being conducted. This election was one of the closest and would decide a legislative seat that could give opposition parties a majority. The officials said it was necessary to have permission from a member of the Tribunal to enter. But at that moment, and throughout the week-long final count, all the other rooms were open to journalists.
Guillermo Mata Benett, a union leader and vice presidential candidate of the Farabundo Martí Liberation Front (FMLN), who was head of the Doctor’s Association until late July, admitted on June 19, during a doctors’ strike, that his organization had decided at its General Assembly to restrict the access of some journalists. He said this was at the request of members of the assembly. There was a “black list” of journalists who would not be allowed into the association’s headquarters. It included Ena Rivas, Edwin Segura and photographer Nubia Rivas, all of Prensa Gráfica.
On August 21, FMLN leader Schafik Handal, head of the legislative delegation and presidential candidate in elections next March 21, accused Carlos Ramos of distorting his words in an interview about his alleged offer of cabinet posts to another party in exchange for forming a coalition for the election.
Finally, it is necessary to report that authorities of the Rio Lempa Hydroelectric Commission (CEL), an autonomous institution and principal supplier of energy to the country, continue to refuse to give any information to Prensa Gráfica reporters or to grant them interviews with any of its officials. This information blackout, which Prensa Gráfica had reported earlier, is notable because the CEL is the public agency that generates the most revenues for the state treasury.
President Francisco Flores promised to give regular press conferences after being reprimanded in April by a group of journalists who pointed out that it had been a year and a half since he had given an interview and almost six months since he had appeared before the press. At first, for two months, the usual weekly press conferences were renewed. The president made statements to the media in an arbitrary way and without advance notice, when he happened to be scheduled for other events. But access to news from the Presidential Office is not systematic and there is absolutely no guarantee of obtaining the president’s official position on subjects such as the Anti-Gang Law, the situation of Salvadorean troops in Iraq or the demarcation of the border with Honduras.

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