Z101FM station director JM Hidalgo explained that Alvaro Arvelo (Alvarito) had not yet been officially notified that the National Commission of Entertainment and Radio (CNEPR) has imposed a 20 day suspension, preventing him from appearing on radio or television. Despite resigning from the Gobierno de la Mañana morning show live, he returned to work the next day ignoring the news that he had been banned from talking on radio or TV. On air, Arvelo had also resigned, but returned to work.
Resolution 002-17 was issued after the Instituto Duartiano accused him of denigrating the founding father Juan Pablo Duarte with his remarks on 28 September 2017. Nevertheless, it was reported that a member of the commission was told to dismiss the ban by a key person in the Presidential Palace. But JM Hidalgo, of CNEPR denied the call to cancel the suspension. He said Arvelo and the radio station Z-101 were notified and need to comply or they will be taken to court as established by CNEPR’s Ruling 824.
The commission had ruled that Arvelo used expressions contrary to morals and good customs when referring to Duarte when hosting historian Roberto Cassá, of the National Archives, on the Gobierno de la Mañana talk show on Z101.
In commenting on Duarte, Arvelo had called the founding father a “coward”, “who did not have character nor balls” and had preferred exile for 20 years in Venezuela, rather to fight in the restoration wars. He also said that Duarte was a manic depressive, a homosexual and irresponsible for having abandoned his ailing mother and his family in the Dominican Republic.
Meanwhile, Angel García of the Instituto Duartiano expressed disappointment with the 20-day suspension saying that it was too short, given what Arvelo had said. In a press conference he recalled that communicator La Tora was suspended for 30 days for having offended Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez, and asked who is more important Duarte or Rodríguez.
García also observed that if article 7 of Law 127-01 were applied, Arvelo could have to go to prison for a month, but he doubted it would happen given the Alvarito’s relationships with the government.
Meanwhile, an editorial in Diario Libre on 12 October 2017 defended Arvelo saying he had the right to say what he thought, even if it was a negative opinion on the founding father.” Diario Libre wrote: “Living in democracy is difficult. You have to accept all the nonsense that the other wants to say, because the alternative is dictatorship, the silence imposed by force.” The editorialist said that those who do not like Arvelo’s expressions can stop listening to the program or can write in protest to the program’s sponsors.
Read more in Spanish:
Hoy
El Caribe
Alvaro Arvelo
Al Momento
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
12 October 2017
