In a new worrying fact for the freedom of press In the Dominican Republic, the journalist Danny Gómez, who was covering a police operation in the Mejoramiento Social neighborhood, better known as the La Sabana neighborhood, was attacked by a colonel of the National Police.
He incident It happened when Gómez was recording at the emergency entrance of the Santiago Rodríguez General Hospital, where the police It prevented the entry and registration of the injured, who had been taken to the medical center after an operation where several incidents were reported. During this situation, Colonel Abreu abruptly grabbed his phone and shouted insults at him, all captured in a video shared with Free Diary.
“This incident joins a series of assaults recent against journalists that document police actions in the north of the country.
Just last Monday, Inocencio Encarnación, journalist of Teleuniverso Channel 29, was attacked in Santiago while covering a traffic accident.
Despite having identified himself as journalistEncarnación was violently immobilized by an agent from the Cibao Central Regional Police Directorate, which has unleashed a wave of criticism from the journalistic community.
Are assaults violate the constitutional right of journalists to informas enshrined in article 49 of the Dominican Constitution, which protects the freedom of expression and of pressand guarantees that communication professionals can carry out their work without interference or reprisals.
Faced with this panorama, organizations such as the Dominican College of Journalists and the Inter-American Press Association have demanded immediate actions to stop the assaults against reporters and guarantee the safety of news professionals press in the exercise of their informative work.
