Attacks on journalists seen as threat to freedom of press
Diario Libre
SAN DIEGO.- The acts of intolerance, abuse and physical attacks by public authorities against journalists and reporters threaten the free exercise of journalism in the Dominican Republic, according to a report on the country released yesterday at the biannual meeting of the Inter-American Press Society (SIP).
The report, presented by the regional vice-president of the Commission on Freedom of the Press in the Dominican Republic, Miguel Franjul, indicated that since November of last year until now there have been unjustified arrests, insults, threats and violent or verbal attacks that have disturbed the free exercise of the press in the country.
"Several reporters, photographers and cameramen have been victims of the intolerant and abusive attitudes of agents of public authority while they covered the details of different events for their media, without having provided the requisite measures to punish those excesses", says the report.
The document refers to the cases of the photographer of the Listin Diario in Santiago, Onelio Dominguez and the chauffer of the vehicle belonging to the newspaper, Noel Blanco, who were arrested "without any reason" for two hours and then released under the argument that everything had been a confusion.
The report also talked about the case of the television journalist Maria Esperanza Ceballos, of the "Cadena de Noticias" (Channel 37), who was refused entrance to the courtroom of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) because she had a sticker supporting the call for 4% of the GDP to be assigned to Education.
In March, journalist Kennedy Vargas, from the sports pages of the newspaper Hoy, complained that unknown persons place a bomb which did not explode in his apartment and he had received death threats. The complaint has not been attended to by the authorities.
The report, presented by the regional vice-president of the Commission on Freedom of the Press in the Dominican Republic, Miguel Franjul, indicated that since November of last year until now there have been unjustified arrests, insults, threats and violent or verbal attacks that have disturbed the free exercise of the press in the country.
"Several reporters, photographers and cameramen have been victims of the intolerant and abusive attitudes of agents of public authority while they covered the details of different events for their media, without having provided the requisite measures to punish those excesses", says the report.
The document refers to the cases of the photographer of the Listin Diario in Santiago, Onelio Dominguez and the chauffer of the vehicle belonging to the newspaper, Noel Blanco, who were arrested "without any reason" for two hours and then released under the argument that everything had been a confusion.
The report also talked about the case of the television journalist Maria Esperanza Ceballos, of the "Cadena de Noticias" (Channel 37), who was refused entrance to the courtroom of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) because she had a sticker supporting the call for 4% of the GDP to be assigned to Education.
In March, journalist Kennedy Vargas, from the sports pages of the newspaper Hoy, complained that unknown persons place a bomb which did not explode in his apartment and he had received death threats. The complaint has not been attended to by the authorities.
Diario Libre
Continuar con Google