Government says it guarantees freedom of expression

The Government denied yesterday that there is a plan or process of limiting or putting obstacles in the way of free exercise of information and public opinion in the country.

The Minister of the Presidency, Cesar Pina Toribio, assured that the media is free to further develop the social role they perform.

The official said the government headed by President Fernandez has guaranteed freedom of expression in the Dominican Republic.

The Government's statement comes after a group of professional journalists, columnists and radio and television commentators denounced the existence of an alleged crackdown on media and journalists, which they say aims to reduce the areas of free speech won by the Dominican people over the last few decades.

According to the complainants, government officials and political leaders part of the alleged offense.

Pina Toribio, speaking a press conference in the Orlando Martinez room at the National Palace  said that the Government has been respectful of the right of citizens to take such legal action as they deem appropriate when they felt hurt or offended by any journalistic publication, letting the matter be resolved according to organizational procedures and subject to the decision of the courts responsible for deciding on its legality and relevance.

The President's Minister claimed that proof of what he said is that the government has promoted Fernandez implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information law that allowed anyone, regardless of rank, to access all type of state information.

"The president is the one who has raised a committee of prominent journalists and lawyers, and commissioned the amendment of the laws governing the media on various topics, from advertising to publications on the Internet, overturning laws in this area in the Dominican Republic," he said.

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