The Trump administration does not even give an ankle to the Dominican government and its “allies.”
By 𝐽𝑜𝑠𝑒́ 𝐴. 𝐴𝑦𝑎𝑙𝑎
Differences: Trump (for whom I did not vote in 2016 or plan to vote in November 2020), as an individual, and even as president, uses his Twitter account to criticize the press, his opponents and non-political or non-political opponents, national leaders and international, and even government officials and former officials. No one is exempt from Trump’s mouth and intimidating keyboard.
I must admit that Trump has had public encounters with journalists while a candidate and as president with brushstrokes of censorship, teasing and other verbal abuse. But that is Trump. People knew it and still voted for it. And, if he wins the congressional trial, who knows if we’ll have him for 4 more years. My point is that it is not a bad official performance, maintained and supported by the 50 States, their territories and his power and institutions. It’s Trump, period.
That being said, I do not know of any means of communication whose government advertising has been cut off. I do not know of any communicator or his family who have been threatened or physically abused by their publications, criticisms, or research papers, at least in the last 30 years.
The Dominican case goes beyond the legendary and even bloodthirsty censorship that those who believe they own my country have accustomed us from Trujillo, Balaguer, PRD and PLD, their officials and partners. And those of us who are Dominicans remember what happened to journalists Orlando Martínez, Professor Narciso González, and other mass communication professionals such as Marino Zapete, Nuria Piera and Alicia Ortega who, although they are alive, they and their loved ones, live in restlessness before the economic blockade, moral harassment and threats to them and their relatives by officials, lackeys and private servants of the government.
What’s happening today is not new. It is corruption, organized crime, a complacent justice, billions combined all at its best to give an accurate and forceful blow to the voices and feathers that create social awareness and human development.
What has changed is the form. The background, the objective, the common denominator remains the same: silence the word either physically, corruptly or immorally.
It seems that the criminal abuse of power is already endemic in ALL administrations in my country and societies like ours.
From what is shown in this work by Univisión NY, it seems that there are now other variables in the equation of censorship, intimidation and selling their conscience:
First, the government’s collusion by also supporting and accepting censorship and intimidation of the press coming from inside and outside prisons.
Second: The integration, under pressure, of the private sector so that they also withdraw their advertising from the media critical of the government or those close to the government.
Third: The complicity and complete “practice” of journalists and “communicators” so that the government and private allies buy their word and pen.
And, fourth, the one that impacts me the most, the willingness of a people to accept and become complicit with their silence and inaction, to a situation that is completely illegal, abusive and criminal. It seems that people have lost all sense of sensitivity and solidarity towards the victims (in this case the press).
Formal and informal education, from preschool to university, to mass media, to community organizations and churches, should serve as lifesavers in the midst of the storm.
Friends, it is not enough to report it and publish it. This is not as simple as it seems.
It is part of the extensive menu of daily challenges of Dominican society, and that only Dominican men and women here and there must solve.
(Thanks to my friend and brother, the journalist Sixto Bussi for his contribution in this opinion piece).
