2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE SIXTEEN - Election and Registration (§§ 1 — 4255) › Subtitle 2 - Additional Provisions (§§ 351 — 973q) › Chapter 60 - Puerto Rico Political Campaign Financing Oversight Act (§§ 621 — 634) › Subchapter VII - Reports (§§ 627 — 627l) › § 627c - Broadcasting contracts for distribution through the media, production costs, and reports

(a) Any political party, its candidate for Governor and their committees, and each political action committee shall submit to the Election Comptroller and the management of all media outlets and communication media they intend to use, the name or names, and the signatures of the persons authorized to enter into contracts on their behalf for air time and space in such media outlet.
(b) Media outlets, independent producers, and advertising agencies shall have the responsibility to require political parties, aspirants, candidates, and political action committees to furnish a certification from the Office of the Election Comptroller attesting to their enrollment, registration, or certification by said entity, as applicable. All advertising agencies rendering advertising services, independent producers, and all media outlets rendering services to political parties, candidates, aspirants, and political action committees shall be required to file monthly reports with the Office of the Election Comptroller, starting on January of the election year and up to the last day of the month in which the general election is held, stating the costs of the services rendered by them in connection with election-related advertisements. The advertising agencies, independent producers, and media outlets referred to in these paragraphs shall be required to include in said reports the name, mailing address, and the identification number of any person who defrays the production costs of advertisements for political parties, aspirants, candidates, political action committees, and independent persons or groups. Furthermore, they shall report any contribution or gift made in the form of goods or services, such as vehicles, studies, polls, or others of any kind, for the purpose of advocating the election or defeat of a party or candidate. Such reports shall be filed, under oath, not later than the tenth (10 th) day of the month following the report month.
(c) Advertising agencies may place advertisements requested by an aspirant, candidate, political party, political action committee, or other type of committee, provided that they have already received from the requestor the corresponding payment for the total expenditures incurred in placing the requested advertisement in the broadcasting media. In the event that such expenditure is to be defrayed from the Election Fund established in §§ 628-628e of this title or by the Special Fund established in §§ 629-629h of this title, the advertising agencies shall bill political parties and candidates for governor in advance, require from the treasurer of each political party or committee a certification signed and sworn by the treasurer, under penalty of perjury, attesting that the request to place an advertisement or group of advertisements or broadcastings is unequivocally funded with the resources already raised and deposited in the Department of the Treasury to defray the total cost of the electioneering communications or group thereof and pay the media outlet the total cost of the advertisement placements requested. Only then may the media outlet broadcast the advertisement requested by an advertising agency on behalf of parties and candidates for Governor.
(d) Media outlets and independent producers may also agree to place advertisements requested by a candidate, aspirant, political party, political action committee, or any other type of committee through direct advertising, provided that the requestor made the advance payment for the total cost of the requested advertisement. If the electioneering communication to be broadcasted is to be defrayed from the Election Fund or the Special Fund for Election Campaign Financing, media outlets and independent producers shall issue a bill in advance, and political parties and their candidates for Governor shall process the payment of said bill in the Department of the Treasury and pay the media outlet or independent producer the total cost of the placement or placements and require the treasurer of said political party or committee to issue a signed and sworn certification under penalty of perjury, attesting that the request to place an advertisement or group of advertisements or broadcastings is unequivocally funded with the resources already raised and deposited in the Department of the Treasury to defray the total cost of the electioneering communications or group thereof.
(e) Advertising agencies, independent producers, and media outlets are hereby banned from financing with their own resources, the cost of placing electioneering communications for any political party, aspirant or candidate for an elective office or for political action committees or any other type of committee that requests the placement of such electioneering communications for the purpose of positively or negatively impacting the election of a candidate, aspirant or ideology in a general election, candidacy or in a plebiscite or referendum.
(f) Furthermore, corporations or individuals that own media outlets are hereby banned from agreeing to place or broadcast electioneering communications for which all the aforementioned requirements have not been fully met, as applicable.
History —Nov. 18, 2011, No. 222, § 8.003; July 3, 2012, No. 135, § 22; renumbered as § 7.003 and amended on Dec. 19, 2014, No. 233, § 49.