Gaspar Roca was a
Puerto Rican journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
and
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
. He attended and graduated from the
Valley Forge Military Academy
Valley Forge Military Academy and College (VFMAC) is a private boarding school (grades 7–12) and military junior college in Wayne, Pennsylvania. It follows in the traditional military school format with army traditions. Though military in t ...
He was educated at
Wharton School
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...
,
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
, and held prominent positions in government and the private sector, including the presidency of the
Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company
The Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO) — es, Compañía de Fomento Industrial de Puerto Rico (or simply ''Fomento'')— is a government-owned corporation of Puerto Rico authorized and empowered to induce private capital ...
(PRIDCO).
Journalism
Roca was the founder and editor of the
Puerto Rica
Puerto, a Spanish word meaning ''seaport'', may refer to:
Places
*El Puerto de Santa María, Andalusia, Spain
*Puerto, a seaport town in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines
*Puerto Colombia, Colombia
*Puerto Cumarebo, Venezuela
*Puerto Galera, Orient ...
n newspaper ''
El Vocero
''El Vocero de Puerto Rico'' is a Puerto Rican free newspaper that is published in San Juan. Published since 1974, ''El Vocero'' was at first the third of the four largest Puerto Rico newspapers, trailing '' El Mundo'' and ''El Nuevo Día'' and ...
'', filling a market niche for a crime-oriented tabloid, left by the closing of ''
El Imparcial
''El Imparcial'', founded in 1918, was a newspaper in Puerto Rico. It circulated daily, except Sundays./ ''About El Imparcial. (San Juan, P.R.) 1918-197?.''] United States Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 July 2012. Its complete name was ''El I ...
''. Under his editorship, ''El Vocero'' evolved into a mainstream newspaper with legitimate news articles, a well-known set of
columnist
A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...
s, including
Luis Dávila Colón, Obed Betancourt,
José Arsenio Torres
José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ).
In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...
,
Roberto Rexach Benítez
Roberto Nicolás Rexach Benítez (December 18, 1929 – April 4, 2012) also known as his stage name Bobby, was a Puerto Rican politician, and former Senator and Representative. Rexach Benítez served as the tenth President of the Senate of Pue ...
,
Eudaldo Báez Galib and
Juan Manuel García Passalacqua
Juan Manuel Garcia Passalacqua (February 22, 1937 – July 2, 2010) was a lawyer, writer and political analyst from Puerto Rico.
Early years
Garcia Passalacqua, who was born in the Hato Rey district of San Juan, Puerto Rico, showed interest in s ...
, and a wide variety of sections and supplements.
Press freedom
One of his contributions to journalism was his willingness to bankroll
freedom of information
Freedom of information is freedom of a person or people to publish and consume information. Access to information is the ability for an individual to seek, receive and impart information effectively. This sometimes includes "scientific, indigeno ...
lawsuits, that have opened government to intense press and public scrutiny. An example is the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
decision declaring unconstitutional the Puerto Rico judiciary's rule barring the press from over 30,000 yearly closed-door preliminary hearings where probable-cause was determined in criminal proceedings (
El Vocero de Puerto Rico vs Puerto Rico
EL, El or el may refer to:
Religion
* El (deity), a Semitic word for "God"
People
* EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer
* El DeBarge, music artist
* El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...
, 508 US 147 (1993)). Other examples include the 1992 lawsuit that forced political candidates to make public their personal finances, and the case declaring unconstitutional Puerto Rico's "criminal defamation" law, that had a limiting effect on the exercise of press freedom right in Puerto Rico.
Journalism in Puerto Rico, and in the mainland United States, has benefitted from these judicial victories. For example, many
freedom of the press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic News media, media, especially publication, published materials, should be conside ...
court cases and lawsuits filed before state and federal courts cite the holding in ''El Voceros 1993 US Supreme Court case.
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See also
* List of Puerto Ricans
References
External links
''El Vocero''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roca, Gaspar
1926 births
2007 deaths
People from Yauco, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican journalists
Valley Forge Military Academy and College alumni
20th-century journalists