NewsWhore
09-19-2008, 05:20 PM
Journalists Nuria Piera and Huchi Lora have received widespread national support from fellow media and citizen groups, after a court granted permission for the authorities to search their offices for archived tapes and other information of interest to Ladom dairy company, which has sued them. The journalists say that this material would be used in their defense in court.
Ladom, which received 40% of all public school breakfast drink contracts from the Ministry of Education under former minister Alejandrina German, sued the journalists after they refused to retract proof that their supplies were well below the Ministry of Education's 3.3% minimum protein standard.
Huchi Lora expressed his concern that the court order, if implemented, would set a damaging precedent for the Dominican press. He said that it seems to be a warning for journalists to steer clear of reporting on irregularities affecting anyone or any company that has a big contract from the government, encouraging an increase in self-censorship.
Lora called the court order the most serious threat to Dominican journalism since the days of the murder of Goyito Castro and Orlando Martinez during the Balaguer regime.
"This shows how rotten things have become, that those who should be prosecuted [Ladom for breach of contract] are the prosecutors," he pointed out. Speaking on the Huchi Lora CDN talk show, journalist Altagracia Salazar concurred that the Attorney General's office should have taken a different position. "A company has a contract with the government, receives money and does not fulfill the contractual obligations, but nothing happens," she points out. "But when the company requests the support of the prosecutors to proceed against someone who points this out, the prosecutors are very diligent and even authorize action against us, while they are negligent to their own responsibilities with the general public," complained Lora.
Lora also challenged the fact that the state prosecutors changed the initial category of the lawsuit from public to private without consulting them as the sued party. Lora said they do not agree with the change, and that it should be a public penal case. "It would be convenient for our case that the state prosecutors stand in trial accusing us of defending Dominican school children," he said.
The irregularities in the case are being discussed on nationwide radio and TV talk shows. Popular TV host Freddy Beras Goico said that all the Dominican press should be in mourning for the measure. "How can they order a search of the offices of Nuria and Huchi, two professionals, supposedly seeking the proof that they themselves want to present, that is suspicious," he commented, as reported in Diario Libre.
El Caribe director Manuel Quiroz said that he had reported the case to the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), warning of the dangers of what he described as "judicial terrorism."
Gonzalo Marroquin of the Inter-American Press Association, upon receiving the report responded: "We fear that judicial acts of this kind may create a bad precedent because investigative journalists would engage in self-censorship, given the possibility that their sources would not have the necessary protection for them to carry out their work." He expressed confidence that the Dominican judiciary would review the decision, in order to continue to guarantee freedom of press in the country.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#11)
Ladom, which received 40% of all public school breakfast drink contracts from the Ministry of Education under former minister Alejandrina German, sued the journalists after they refused to retract proof that their supplies were well below the Ministry of Education's 3.3% minimum protein standard.
Huchi Lora expressed his concern that the court order, if implemented, would set a damaging precedent for the Dominican press. He said that it seems to be a warning for journalists to steer clear of reporting on irregularities affecting anyone or any company that has a big contract from the government, encouraging an increase in self-censorship.
Lora called the court order the most serious threat to Dominican journalism since the days of the murder of Goyito Castro and Orlando Martinez during the Balaguer regime.
"This shows how rotten things have become, that those who should be prosecuted [Ladom for breach of contract] are the prosecutors," he pointed out. Speaking on the Huchi Lora CDN talk show, journalist Altagracia Salazar concurred that the Attorney General's office should have taken a different position. "A company has a contract with the government, receives money and does not fulfill the contractual obligations, but nothing happens," she points out. "But when the company requests the support of the prosecutors to proceed against someone who points this out, the prosecutors are very diligent and even authorize action against us, while they are negligent to their own responsibilities with the general public," complained Lora.
Lora also challenged the fact that the state prosecutors changed the initial category of the lawsuit from public to private without consulting them as the sued party. Lora said they do not agree with the change, and that it should be a public penal case. "It would be convenient for our case that the state prosecutors stand in trial accusing us of defending Dominican school children," he said.
The irregularities in the case are being discussed on nationwide radio and TV talk shows. Popular TV host Freddy Beras Goico said that all the Dominican press should be in mourning for the measure. "How can they order a search of the offices of Nuria and Huchi, two professionals, supposedly seeking the proof that they themselves want to present, that is suspicious," he commented, as reported in Diario Libre.
El Caribe director Manuel Quiroz said that he had reported the case to the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), warning of the dangers of what he described as "judicial terrorism."
Gonzalo Marroquin of the Inter-American Press Association, upon receiving the report responded: "We fear that judicial acts of this kind may create a bad precedent because investigative journalists would engage in self-censorship, given the possibility that their sources would not have the necessary protection for them to carry out their work." He expressed confidence that the Dominican judiciary would review the decision, in order to continue to guarantee freedom of press in the country.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#11)