Miami (December 22, 2012)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today condemned threats made by a senior official of the anti-drug department at the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, international airport who warned reporters covering that issue he would include their names in official records on drug trafficking.
Lieutenant Colonel Johan Liriano, head of the National Drug Control Department (DNCD) at the Las Américas International Airport in the Dominican capital, yesterday blasted a group of journalists accredited by that department for what he said was obstruction of official investigations by reporting on seizures of drugs before the department itself announced them. Liriano warned them that “I could easily list you in any report on drugs if you continue doing that.”
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gustavo Mohme, editor of the Lima, Peru, newspaper La República, criticized the attempt at intimidation by this member of the Armed Forces, adding, “We trust that the authorities can correct these attitudes against access to information, and respect press freedom.”
This morning the DNCD head, Major General Rolando Rosado Mateo, announced the temporary suspension of Liriano and the appointment of a committee to investigate the complaint.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
