ELLA Multimedia: VIDEO: The Process of Approving the Freedom of Information Act in El Salvador

Abstract

As part of a twenty-year long process of democratic consolidation, El Salvador finally approved its Freedom of Information Act in 2011, guaranteeing citizens’ right to information and aiming to improve government accountability. In this 7.22 minutes video interview, Carmina Castro, Analyst in the Democratic Institutions Department at the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development (Fundación Salvadoreña para el Desarrollo Económico y Social), describes the six-year lobbying process that Salvadorian civil society undertook to guarantee this fundamental right. She also talks about the approval process itself, its challenges and the enabling and contextual factors underpinning this successful advocacy process