Roberto Sandoval, host of opinion programs on Radio Comercial and Telecable Nacional's Canal 10, was abducted by three unidentified people outside his Santo Domingo home on March 8, according to Dominican press reports. His abductors drove Sandoval 25 miles (40 kilometers) outside of the Dominican capital, where they threatened to kill him, the reports said. The journalist escaped by jumping from a moving vehicle, as his assailants fired gunshots at him, colleague Rudy Germán Pérez told CPJ. One of the assailants' shots grazed Sandoval's back, and he suffered minor injuries when he leapt from the vehicle. News reports said the assailants searched for Sandoval, but he hid in a wooded area until they were gone. Sandoval, who often reports on crime and is critical of Dominican law enforcement, temporarily left his home with his family following the attack, Germán Pérez said.

Dominican police arrested Vladimir Pujols, one of two gang members accused of the September 2004 murder of journalist Juan Emilio Andújar Matos of Radio Azua and Listín Diario. Pujols, who was arrested on March 29, denied involvement in the murder. A second suspect, Luis Tejeda Filpo, was shot to death by police two days after Andújar was murdered. Andújar was ambushed and shot in the head after a broadcast in which he reported on a bloody crime wave that pitted gang members against police in Azua.

A Santo Domingo judge convicted journalists Enrique Crespo, Ali David Demey, and Anaylis Cañizales of criminal defamation on July 27. The Association of Art Reporters accused the three hosts of the cable television show "Los Dueños el Circo" of defamation when they suggested that winners of the group's annual Casandra Awards had paid off the judges. The association, known as Acroarte, said the accusation was untrue. Crespo and Demey were fined 4 million pesos (US$118,000) each, and Cañizales was fined 2 million pesos (US$59,000). Crespo told CPJ that he and his colleagues would appeal.

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