MEDIA WATCH: Through a window darkly

Hoyporhoy,La Prensa Dec 15

National Authority Transparency and Access to Information (Antai) should be the incubator of a new culture of integrity, open government and accountability in the Panamanian government.

The strength of the Antai is their moral leadership and its everyday example as a mirror and laboratory of best practices. Therefore, it is noteworthy that this institution is not fully transparent in its work report.

Under the cloak of protection of the presumption of innocence, the Antai selectively discloses the specifics of its investigations, which have no criminal or policing character, but the strength of the ethical conviction that animates it.

After so much opacity, silence and complicity in recent years, it is a powerful and necessary governance change that responds to citizens, justifying every penny of taxes paid, and validating the civic exercise of our right to information and, above all our hope for a government that is accountable to its citizens. That must be the Antai … not to be more of the same.