The Dominican Republic and Journalism
The most popular destination in the Dominican Republic is Punta Cana. The city is full of resorts and beautiful beaches. The Dominican Republic shares an island with Haiti between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It has a population of 10,606,865 and the official language is Spanish.
According to Geert Hofstede, the Dominican Republic is a hierarchal, collectivist, masculine society. Everyone has their place. Everyone takes responsibility for fellow members, and they all “strive to be the best they can be.” They also have a huge respect for tradition and view societal changes cautiously.
The Dominican Republic is rated 59th in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index, which is three places up from where it was in 2016. The media allows self-censorship and sabotages freedom of information, according to The World Press Freedom Index. Journalists who tackle subjects like corruption or drug trafficking face a higher chance of threats and violent retaliations, including murder by government officials or cartel members.
Back in February of 2017, Reporters Without Borders reported on the death of a radio news presenter. Luis Manuel Medina Pérez was known for criticizing local authorities on his radio show and was gunned down mid-broadcast along with producer Leónidas Antonio Evangelista Martínez.
Police have said that they have identified a man in connection to the investigation but are not working on theories. There has not been any follow up articles on this situation.
However, a big step forward for not just the media but democracy was in 2016 when the legislation in which journalists could be imprisoned for defamation was repealed.
According the CIA World Factbook, the Dominican Republic has a combination of state-owned and privately owned broadcast media. They have one state-owned and numerous privately owned TV networks. The Human Development Index reports that almost 52 percent of the population use the Internet and the mobile phone subscription per 100 people is 82.6.
In the community of San Francisco de Macoris, a newspaper by the name of El Jaya was started in 1985. The opening paragraph in the first editorial stated: “the newspaper project El Jaya emerges as a written communication service company in order to fill the void that in this area is felt in a community like San Francisco de Macoris.”
It was founded by journalists Adriano Cruz Marte, Dionisio Nuñez Mendoza, and the Welcome Announcer Santos Morel (Tágara) after months of planning. Adriano continued as director after the others decided to retire and has now been the head of El Jaya for 29 years.
It started as a monthly publication and in its second year of publication it switched to bi-weekly. Previous editions of the print copy are made available online as The Virtual Jaya. It’s Internet edition started in 1999 and is updated daily. El Jaya is also sold in New York out of a small store called “Anna’s.” It is located a few blocks from the train station to the Bronx and Brooklyn.
According to El Jaya “Our History” page, it is “one of the most widely read and consulted sources of information by francomacorisanos and outsiders because each one of its editions reflects the events and activities that constitute the historical facts of francomacorisana society.”
While El Jaya has sections for National and New York news, a majority of its articles are about things occurring in their region, how they are affected. There is also a section online called “Stories of my people,” which focuses on the history of people in San Francisco de Macoris.
Some examples of local stories that El Jaya publishes are voting and electoral process, City Hall celebrating Secretary’s Day, communities loss of communication due to landslide, and there’s numerous stories about the Green March, which is people against corruption and impunity government.
Their National news section has stories about flood prevention, how legislators met to form Dominican-Parlacen (Parlacen is the Central American Parliament) friendship group, the civil aviation board approved 1,364 new passenger and cargo flights, and how the Chief of the National Police has assigned 132 agents to his escort.
Their New York section focuses on things occurring in New York and how it will affect Dominicans residing there. Some stories include marches against immigration policies, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer recognized Dominican inter state community member in the U.S., and how 19 gang members that were arrested in the Bronx were of Dominican origin.
El Jaya’s vision is “to be a leading company in the field of communication to satisfy the need for information and to highlight the values of a growing community, supporting us in the excellence of our team through the use of cutting-edge technologies”.
