DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Country Summary

The media met some resistance from political parties vying in the watershed May 16 presidential election and in a second round of voting in June, scheduled because none of the candidates received an outright majority in the first round. The campaign was widely considered the most reserved and civilized in the Dominican Republic’s three decades of democracy. But supporters of the ruling Social Christian Reform Party (PRSC), one of the three principal political parties, assaulted a reporter for the Rahitel television station and her cameraman at a press conference. Journalists for other media outlets reported some minor skirmishes with members of political parties after news organizations endorsed candidates.

The press suffered a significant setback when one of the Dominican Republic’s most prestigious journalists was convicted of defaming the head of a telecommunications company. On June 19, a criminal court found Juan Bolivár D’az guilty of libeling another journalist, Generoso Ledesma, in Electoral Trauma, a book about the Dominican Republic’s 1994 general elections. Bolivár received a six-month prison sentence and a fine of approximately US$233,000. Bolivár has appealed the conviction and is awaiting a new trial.

In other developments, the police officer accused of shooting and killing Ultima Hora journalist Juan Carlos Vasquez in June 1995 went on trial for murder.

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