By Joseph Vavrus
A judge in the Dominican Republic has ordered TV reporter José Agustin Silvestre de los Santos held on $5,250 bail pending a trial for allegedly defaming a La Romana prosecutor in a report accusing the official of ties to drug trafficking, Diario Libre reports.
According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Silvestre, the host of “La Voz de la Verdad” (The Voice of Truth) on Cana TV, could be held for three months if he fails to make bail.
“This detention order is tantamount to passing sentence before a verdict has been reached,” Reporters Without Borders said and called the “effective jail sentence” a “serious threat to press freedom.”
Other Related Headlines:
» El Día (Prison for journalist questioned)
» Dominican Today (Extraditable says Dominican Republic’s drugs chief pays reporters to slander him)
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
