(PFC/IFEX) – During an 11 December 2002 press conference, representatives of the Dominican Journalism College and Jesuit priests who administrate Radio Marién condemned the arrest of the radio station’s news director, Gonell Franco, and politician Wildárico Núñez Corniel, for having reported on rice trafficking on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. By the […]
(PFC/IFEX) – During an 11 December 2002 press conference, representatives of the Dominican Journalism College and Jesuit priests who administrate Radio Marién condemned the arrest of the radio station’s news director, Gonell Franco, and politician Wildárico Núñez Corniel, for having reported on rice trafficking on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
By the time of the press conference, the authorities had not provided any explanation for the arrests and claimed to not know Franco’s whereabouts. The individuals who called the conference expressed their belief that the authorities are trying to cover up the trafficking of people and agricultural products in the border region. The local media was told that National Department of Investigations (Departamento Nacional de Investigaciones, DNI) agents had approached the radio station, insisting that they be given a recording of the programme “A Primera Hora”, on which Núñez had alluded to the rice trafficking.
In a letter to President Hipolito Mejía, PFC expressed concern over the reported arrests and noted that such an action by the authorities would be proof of their involvement in the trafficking of people and agricultural products in the border region. PFC lamented the fact that in the Dominican Republic and in Latin America in general, when faced with reports of corruption or official cover-ups of organised crime, government authorities have tended to go on the attack against the messengers instead of investigating the facts. Such responses end up favouring those implicated in such crimes and inhibiting civic vigilance of public matters.
For further information on the case, see:
http://portal-pfc.org/perseguidos/2002/113.html
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
– calling for a thorough investigation into the arrests of Franco and Núñez, so that the reasons for their apprehension can be ascertained
– calling for sanctions against the authorities if the arrests were unjustified
Appeals To
His Excellency Hipolito Mejía
President
E-mail: prensa@presidencia.gov.do
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
