The resolution was issued following a lawsuit for protection filed by the company that owns the lighthouse for a series of requirements outside the tax interest requested by the Ministry of Finance.
The Ministry of Finance must temporarily refrain from requiring key documentation from Tripod, Sociedad Anónima de Capital Variable (Trípode, SA de CV), owner of the digital newspaper El Far, while a process of protection is finally resolved in petition for signature and it is determined whether this rather compromises freedom of expression and the press and the rights of journalists, ordered the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice.
In a ruling issued on Friday, the highest court ordered that the requirement for the minutes of the company’s Board of Directors, the final reports or reports delivered to international cooperators, and the details of the proceedings be “suspended immediately and provisionally.” subscribers who make periodic contributions
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The decision of the Chamber responds to a protection lawsuit filed by El Far against the General Directorate, the Sub-Directorate General and the Department of Criminal Investigation and Tax Regulations, authorities of the General Directorate of Internal Revenue (DGII) of the Ministry of Finance, which initiated proceedings in which the tax behavior of its representative has been investigated in relation to the tax years of 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
In the opinion of Tripod’s lawyers, there is a risk that the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of information and information self-determination of journalists who carry out – or have exercised within relevant periods – homework will be violated. in the media, individuals who contribute to it and the actor society.
“The disclosure of the questioned information would allow the executive body to know aspects of the editorial and research line of the medium, as well as journalistic secrets related to the methodology, sources and collaborators of the medium El Far”, say the lawyers’ allegations.
Coupled with this, it is argued that the private information of the subscribers of the said medium lacks tax relevance and must be protected because it is personal data of a sensitive nature.
The Chamber clarifies that this resolution “does not constitute – in any way – an obstacle to the power of control of the public tax administration”, since the object of this process is not to control the control procedures themselves, nor define – merely – whether the documentation and information in question is of tax relevance, but establish whether – as a result of the possible delivery of what is required – the fundamental rights to freedom of expression, freedom of information and informative self-determination.
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In early February, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued The IACHR issued legal protection measures in favor of the digital newspaper El Far and its journalists against threats, harassment, intimidation, as well as criminalization and stigmatization by government of Nayib Bukele.
The IACHR, one of the main organs of the Organization of American States (OAS) for the promotion and defense of human rights, has ordered precautionary measures in the State of El Salvador considering the “gravity, urgency and irreparability” of the facts, ranging from threats, discrimination, discredit through state media and other hostilities.
In view of this, it calls on the government of Nayib Bukele to take the necessary measures to preserve the lives and integrity of 34 people who are part of the Lighthouse, as well as to “be able to carry out their journalistic activities in the exercise of the their right to freedom of expression, without being subjected to acts of intimidation, threats and harassment. “