Constitutional Court ruling a major gain by Dominican media

SantoDomingo.- The Dominican Association of Newspapers on Sunday said it’s satisfied with the ConstitutionalCourt ruling striking down several articles of the law on Expression andDissemination of Thought, which were part of the criminal liabilities fordefamation, or the so-called crimes against honor.

It calledthe decision historical by consolidating guarantees established in DominicanRepublic’s Constitution and which it affirms also puts the country in line withinternational agreements.

The rulingresponds to a lawsuit filed Feb. 25, 2013, by the editors-in-chief ofnewspapers El Día, Rafael Molina Morillo; Listin Diario, Miguel Franjul and OsvaldoRafael Santana, El Caribe, and Press and Law Foundation president NamphiRodríguez, and which was claimed by all national newspapers on July 3, 2014, itcomes to give concrete results in the fight for called decriminalization of pressoffenses or word he says.

"As westated in our press release of July 3, 2014, Dominican society has patientlyand eagerly awaited the time when these legislative hindrances that pend like asword of Damocles over the throat of freedom of expression disappears from ourlegal system."