The imminent dissolution of the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) threatens the institutional mechanisms designed to enhance accountability. Central to this crisis is the National Transparency Platform (PNT), which has provided citizens access to over 15 billion public data points. Its potential weakening or disappearance raises critical questions about the future of information access and public power oversight.
The Role of PNT
Since its inception, the PNT has been a cornerstone in guaranteeing the constitutional right to access information. It facilitates information requests to public agencies and centralizes key data such as contracts, budgets, and social programs.
Threat to Independence
The dissolution of INAI jeopardizes not only the platform’s operation but also its independence. The PNT, a public domain asset, must remain accessible to all citizens. Without an autonomous institution to oversee its management, its integrity is at risk.
Data Protection Concerns
The impact extends to personal data protection. In a world where information is power, the absence of an autonomous body to safeguard this right leaves citizens vulnerable. Questions arise about the fate of the files in the PNT: Will they disappear, be deleted, or shared with authorities?
Legal and Symbolic Implications
The right to access information, recognized as a human right, lacks effectiveness without clear and functional mechanisms to guarantee it. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee have emphasized that access to public information is essential for the full exercise of human rights and fostering citizen participation.
Defending the Right to Information
In this new landscape, it is crucial for civil society, journalists, human rights organizations, and the media to demand clarity on the PNT’s future. Exploring alternative mechanisms to guarantee information access is also necessary.
Access to information is a human right. The extinction of INAI is a blow to transparency, but it should not be the final one. Citizens must raise their voices because when transparency fades, we are left in the shadow of ignorance. Democracy, being the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, must uphold the people’s right to know.
Source: El Universal
