(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 30 July 2003 IAPA press release: IAPA keeps close watch on legal action against Dominican Republic’s Listín Diario MIAMI, Florida (July 30, 2003) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) announced today that it would continue to keep close watch on developments in the situation of the Editora Listín […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 30 July 2003 IAPA press release:
IAPA keeps close watch on legal action against Dominican Republic’s Listín Diario
MIAMI, Florida (July 30, 2003) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) announced today that it would continue to keep close watch on developments in the situation of the Editora Listín Diario publishing company in the Dominican Republic following a court order that it be restored immediately to its owners after being placed in official receivership by monetary authorities investigating an alleged multi-million dollar fraud by a bank closely linked to the company. The judge who heard a request for injunction filed by the Báez family seeking the return of the four newspapers published by their company, among them the 100-year-old Listín Diario, ruled that the 15 May seizure of the papers was unconstitutional.
IAPA President Andrés García, editor of the Cancún, Mexico newspaper Novedades de Quintana Roo, and the chairman of the organization’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Rafael Molina, editor of the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, news magazine Ahora, expressed the hope that in the case of Listín Diario due legal process would be observed unswervingly, without any curtailment of freedom of expression. Attorneys for the Báez family and the editors of the seized newspapers have announced that they are ready to retake possession of them today. State attorneys say that the judge’s order is not immediately applicable, but rather action on it has to await the outcome of an appeal they have filed, which is due to be heard by the court on August 13.
Judge Samuel Arias Arzeno ordered the restoration of the Listín Diario publishing company’s news media outlets to businessman Ramón Báez Romano in upholding a writ filed by his attorneys. Listín Diario, together with Ultima Hora, El Expreso and El Financiero newspapers and several radio and television stations, as well as other businesses belonging to the Banco Intercontinental bank, were placed in official receivership after the Central Bank alleged financial irregularities.
In his ruling issued yesterday, Judge Arias Arzeno described the action against the publishing company as “violating fundamental rights” – among them “freedom of expression of thought provided for in Article 8 of the Dominican Republic’s Constitution” – and ordered “the state attorney to immediately restore Editora Listín Diario to Ramón Báez Romano, as well as the immediate reinstatement and right of enjoyment of its installations and offices.”
