Saint Dominic.-The Dominican Newspaper Society expressed its concern and rejection of the document “Data Protection Policy of the Judiciary”, issued by the Supreme Court of Justice, an initiative that seeks to legislate unilaterally, contravening constitutional and legal precepts that guarantee the right of citizens to access information about judicial processes.
Furthermore, it promotes judicial opacity by granting excessive discretionary power to hide data essential for transparency and the exercise of public freedoms, making access to public and private sources of collective interest difficult.
The Society of Newspapers understands that the Supreme Court of Justice bases this Data Protection Policy of the Judiciary on an erroneous interpretation of various laws that are not applicable to judicial processes, presenting arguments that contradict legal provisions that do support access to data. court files.
“Ordinal 4 of article 69 of the Constitution establishes that every person has the right to a public, oral and adversarial trial, with equal conditions and full respect for the right of defense.
Likewise, the Constitution limits the powers of the Judiciary, including the Supreme Court of Justice, to the administration of justice, without granting it legislative powers.
Its role is limited to resolving conflicts between natural or legal persons in private or public law, judging and executing what is judged,” he explains through a document.
Over protection
The Supreme Court of Justice indicates in its document that Law 172-13, on the protection of personal data, is applicable to the processing of data by the country’s courts and tribunals.
However, it omits that this same law, in its article 1, establishes that journalistic sources of information will not be affected.
Furthermore, this law aims to guarantee the protection of personal data, respecting the right to honor and privacy, but also facilitating access to information in accordance with article 44 of the Constitution.
In article 4, ordinal 2, of Law 172-13, it is specified that the personal data protection regime does not apply to data files related to investigation and intelligence organizations in charge of preventing, prosecuting and punishing crimes.
Therefore, the application of this policy to judicial processes is inappropriate.
Likewise, this policy contravenes paragraph II of article 42 of Law no. 2-23 on Appeal of Cassation, which provides that the rulings of the Court of Cassation must be published in full in the Judicial Bulletin, in print and digitally on the website of the Supreme Court of Justice.
Proposal
— Dialogue
The Dominican Newspaper Society indicated that it welcomes the call for dialogue made by the president of the Supreme Court of Justice through his letter sent to the entity on November 19.
