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Alert

Drug traffickers issue death threats to journalist and television producer Manuel Vega

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters sans frontières calls on the authorities to take death threats made against journalist and television producer Manuel Antonio Vega seriously. Vega has regularly denounced drug trafficking in the Dominican Republic and should be afforded the protection necessary to carry out his work safely.

Vega, who regularly reports on drug issues, was allegedly threatened by Ismael Sosa and Juan Alcarón, both of whom are serving sentences for drug trafficking in El Seibo prison in the eastern part of the island. The pair are said to have acquired a mobile phone from which they have reportedly threatened Vega and his family repeatedly. The journalist, whose home was once the target of a machine-gun attack, has regularly been the object of threats.

"This is not the first time that Manuel Vega has been threatened for tackling the issue of drug trafficking. Reporters sans frontiers supports the College of Journalists' call for his protection," RSF said."An investigation into recent threats must begin by determining how the individuals who made the threats were able to access a mobile telephone in prison."

During a 23 September 2008 march for free expression and objective reporting, Dominican journalists expressed their concern about threats from drug traffickers.

For further information on previous attacks on Vega, see: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/80595