The case of the mob that attacked the Diario Libre reaches SIP

SANTO DOMINGO. The bullying to which the Diario Libre was subjected on 9 and 10 October, by a mob of persons who sought to carry out an illegal embargo, which resulted from a lawsuit by the commentator Raul Perez Peña (Bacho), was presented in the 70th Assembly of the Inter-American Press Society (SIP) which is being held in Santiago, Chile.

"The Diario Libre newspaper reported that an "armed mob accompanied by bailiff Leyvi Ali Nuñez Diaz, of the Appeals Court of Santo Domingo, forcefully took two vehicles from Diario Libre drivers and attempted to take a third, at a time when they were working on newspaper business," stresses a report on the country.

"The newspaper said that these attacks are added to others when several persons, some of them armed, appeared at their installations in order to carry out an embargo illegally. The embargo was the result of a lawsuit by commentator Raul Perez Diaz (Bacho)," states the conclusion of the document.

The case was presented by the director of the Listin Diario, Miguel Franjul, who is the regional Vice President for the Dominican Republic of the Freedom of the Press Commission of the SIP, and he described the situation of the press in the country during this year. The document read by Franjul also noted that in 2014 "a series of aggressions abuses and threats have made clear the insecure conditions for the exercise of journalism and the freedom of the press."

He highlighted the cases of three television reporters, Yaniris Sanchez and José Cruz of Telenoticias, Channel 11 and Silvino Da Silva of the National Information Service, Channel 9, who were injured by stones and bottles thrown by a group of Haitians who carried out a gunfight with the Police in the 27 February barrio.

He noted that President Danilo Medina assured a delegation of newspaper executives from Chile and Panama and the Dominican Republic that his administration would guarantee absolute respect for freedom of expression.

An unsafe climate

Miguel Franjul reported that, in the midst of a growing climate of insecurity, the principal newspapers "agreed to reactivate the Dominican Society of Newspapers in order to fight for the dismantling of the laws that penalize the work of newspapers." He said that one of their first jobs was to file before the Constitutional Tribunal and asked them to decide regarding an appeal of unconstitutionality which was filed by the directors of three newspapers in February 2013 as a way of eliminating Law 6132.