Controversies surround the content of the recently enacted National Intelligence Agency (DNI) Law 1-24.
The law is intended as a tool to improve national security and enhance the fight against crime, yet there is concern the ambiguities in the law could lead to situations of abuse.
The bottom line is that the legislators again did not do their job well and the wording is too open ended. The media is focusing on what could be described as negligence in legislators doing what they are paid to do, draft good laws.
El Caribe newspaper looks into the legislators assigned to the committee that would review the bill received from the Presidency and did not attend the sessions. The bill was amended in
Congress and passed with the vote of the opposition parties, whose leaders are now vocal against the law.
There is also the controversial session where the specific requirement whereby a judge needed to be involved in deciding if a citizen could be obliged to provide information was instead replaced by ambiguous wording in Art. 11, for instance.
The new wording in the law seems to oblige even journalists to reveal their sources.
The Abinader administration has been open to talks. The government now has the option of resubmitting the bill adhering to recommendations, acting to include the observations in the ruling of the law that is yet to be finalized, or awaiting the considerations of the Constitutional Court. It could take more than a year for the Constitutional Court to rule on requests for its opinion.
Constitutional law expert Nasser Perdomo and lawyer Francisco Alvarez Martinez discussed the weaknesses and concerns of the law on Esta Noche con Mariasela on Tuesday, 23 January 2024.
An editorial in Diario Libre makes the point the deputies did not read what they were passing.
Read more:
El Caribe
El Dia
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Esta Noche con Mariasela
24 January 2024