Panama’s leading press freedom organization has issued a forceful rejection of a $1.5 million civil lawsuit brought by PRD party president and deputy Benicio Robinson against the publisher of La Prensa and one of its journalists, warning that subjecting investigative reporting to punishing litigation threatens the fundamental role of the press in a democracy.
What Happened
In a statement released Friday, the Fórum de Periodistas por la Libertad de Expresión e Información expressed its strong objection to the civil suit filed in 2022 by Robinson against Corporación La Prensa, S.A. (Corprensa) and journalist Mary Triny Zea.
The lawsuit stems from an investigative report titled Ruta de los Cupos Llega hasta el diputado Robinson, which examined the acquisition of public transport quotas in the province of Bocas del Toro. The investigation explored relationships between organizations that benefited from the quotas, the deputy himself, and people in his family circle.
The Fórum emphasized that the reporting was built on information obtained through legal access-to-information mechanisms, including data requested from the National Land Transit and Transportation Authority (ATTT) under Law 6 of 2002, Panama’s transparency law.
In its statement, the organization cited findings by the Inter American Press Association (SIP) on the impact of lawsuits against journalists and media outlets, noting that such proceedings are often lengthy and involve large sums of money, producing economic strain, discouraging investigations, and encouraging self-censorship.
Background
The press freedom group also invoked established Inter-American human rights standards, recalling that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) has determined that public officials are subject to greater social scrutiny than private citizens. In matters of public interest, inter-American standards set a heightened threshold for establishing civil liability, requiring proof that the publisher knew the information was false, intended to cause harm, or acted with manifest negligence in seeking the truth.
The lawsuit is not the only legal fallout from the investigation. In March 2023, the National Authority for Transparency and Access to Information (Antai) fined La Prensa $5,000, accusing the newspaper of violating Law 81 of 2019 on personal data protection. Antai argued that publishing a photograph of Robinson constituted a “sensitive” biometric datum, and therefore required his prior authorization. Fifteen months later, Antai revoked the fine — not because it reconsidered its position, but because it concluded the facts were the same as those contained in Robinson’s civil suit against Corprensa and Zea.
What This Means for Panama
The Fórum’s intervention highlights growing tensions between investigative journalism and the legal tools available to public officials who are the subject of scrutiny. The organization’s central warning — that “scrutinizing power cannot become an activity punished through judicial attrition” — frames the case as a test of the space available for accountability reporting in Panama.
The group cautioned about the inhibiting effect that a claim of this magnitude can have on the free exercise of journalism, while also stating that it will monitor the case’s development with full respect for judicial independence.
For observers of Panamanian media, the case raises broader questions about how transparency laws and data protection statutes are applied to reporting on elected officials. The same investigation has already produced two separate legal actions — a fine later revoked on procedural grounds and an ongoing multimillion-dollar civil claim — illustrating the layered legal risks facing newsrooms that examine matters of public interest.
The outcome of the civil suit, and how courts weigh the inter-American standards cited by the Fórum, will be closely watched as an indicator of press freedom protections in Panama.
This story was originally reported by La Prensa.