Zulay Rodríguez, first vice president of the National Assembly, whose controversial flurry of bills including attacks on immigrants have raised questions from civil groups. Human rights organizations and church leaders is now under renewed fire from media organizations.

The president of the National Journalism Council, Sabrina Bacal, warned that the PRD deputy  has  breached an August commitment, made  in a meeting with her and representatives of other journalistic unions of the country, as well as local representatives of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) , in order to discuss the immigration reform bill and other legislative initiatives she promotes.

According to Bacal, in that meeting, promised to eliminate article 13 of the immigration reform bill, which says:  “Those foreigners who publicly express offenses and insults towards Panamanian nationality, who commit crimes in the country, or those who do not deliver the documentation described in article 5 of this Law, after the expiration of the legal deadlines for this purpose, as well as the detained persons who have served their sentence or the quota part thereof established in the Agreements and Treaties that they exist as the case may be, with their country of origin; they will be deported immediately from the national territory ”.

Bacal recalled that during the appointment, which was also attended by Gerardo Berroa (president of the Forum of Journalists); Alessio Gronchi (Panamanian Broadcasting Association); Guillermo Antonio Adames, vice president of the National Journalism Council; Eduardo Quirós, president of the board of directors of  La Estrella and member of the board of directors of the Inter-American Press Association, and Alejandra Araúz (Forum of Journalists), said she had a commitment to freedom of expression, the which - in her s opinion - "is not negotiable."

Bacal said  that when Rodriguez presented the preliminary bill to the Government subcommission created to analyze the proposal, it included a text whose essence is exactly the same as that of the

“Just a week ago, deputy Zulay Rodríguez promised, , to eliminate article 13, which clearly violated freedom of expression, and today we are seeing in the subcommission that it is introducing a very similar proposal. " 

"And what is strange is that the person carrying the flag [of the LGBTI community] is not even a foreigner. So she is now talking about deporting now those who offend the national symbols and that, in essence, is exactly the same as what that she promised to eliminate, ”said Bacal.

"At that same meeting, deputy Zulay said that freedom of expression for her was not negotiable, so we hope that with all her decisions and actions she will honor this word," she added.