President Hipolito Mejia is without doubt the most accessible to the press President the Dominican Republic has ever had. Indeed, the President is so accessible, it is rare that his cabinet ministers speak to the press so as not to be contradicted by the President. The President is also known for his spontaneous but cutting and many times insulting comments of which the press has gotten its share. Commenting on the "official intolerance" to the press in the DR, as reported by Rafael Molina Morillo, president of the Freedom of the Press Committee of the Interamerican Press Association during the mid-year meeting in Fortaleza, Brazil, President Mejia denied the charge. Instead, he described Molina Morillo as suffering from the "syndrome of the Trujillo Era." "I have been surprised, and now its only missing that you (the journalists) will want to govern me," he said as published in the Listin Diario. The IAPA denounced 14 cases of abuse to Dominican journalists, most on behalf of the security force of the President.
