A clause in the Political Parties Law may be in violation with Art. 49 on Freedom of Speech and Information in the Dominican Constitution. Legislators snuck in wording in the new Political Parties Law that could send government dissenters to jail for “negative comments” on campaigning politicians in social media. This would be a first for Dominican people that have enjoyed freedom of the press so far, or at least in social media. The recently passed Political Parties Bill includes an article that equals negative comments on campaigning politicians to charges of defamation and personal injury and sets penalties of three months to a year for those making these comments in social media.
As reported in El Dia, the legislative clause establishes that the spreading of negative messages through social media that affect the image of candidates will be penalized according to articles 21 and 22 of the Law 53-07 on high tech crimes. Those articles refer to defamation and personal injury by electronic media and establish penalties that run from three months to a year in prison and fines from five to 500 minimum wages.
The bill does not clarify what a negative campaign consists of. El Dia reports that in political marketing, negative campaign is the placing in public evidence of the weaknesses, deficiencies and of a candidate.
As reported in El Dia, lawyer Laura Acosta said that during a political campaign negative messages can not be banned, because in political campaigns each person says negative things of the contender. “This is very different than defamation or personal injury,” she said. She wondered if the intention is that only good things be said about the political candidates.
Art. 49 on Freedom of Speech in the 2015 Constitution establishes:
“All persons have the right to express freely their thoughts, ideas and opinions by any means, without prior censorship.
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El Día
21 August 2018
