Anselmo Muñiz, a member of the El País Que Queremos (EPQ – Country that We Want) minority political movement, said the government should explain the reasons why Gonzalo Castillo, when Minister of Public Works, delivered three contracts without tender for more than RD$1 billion to Maybeth Virginia Rodríguez Sánchez, sister of Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez Sánchez.
The claim was made by muckraking journalist Marino Zapete who presented evidence of the irregularities in the contracts. Zapete was subsequently booted from his El Jarabe on the TV station, TeleRadio América. Zapete continues his El Jarabe program on his YouTube channel.
Muñiz said that “the freedom to denounce and criticize officials is a fundamental right.” He observed the PLD government has resorted with impunity to direct and indirect censorship against critical journalism. He also mentioned the Democratic Quality Report in the Dominican Republic, published in March this year by United Nations Development Program that reveals a decline in indicators of freedom of expression in the Dominican Republic over the last decade.
“This is not the first time that the Danilista government has induced the closure of a critical program, nor will it be the last. Let’s remember the censorship of critical communicators Altagracia Salazar, Edith Febles and Ricardo Nieves last year,” Muñiz remarked. He said there has been a concentration of the media in the hands of individuals and corporate groups that he says are partners of the government.
According to Muñiz, any attack on freedom of expression is an attack on democracy and must be responded to forcefully by citizens. “Over and over again the PLD governments have shown that they do not respect democracy and that they do not respect the rights of citizens,” he reiterated.
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El Dia
2 October 2019