Deteriorating public safety conditions represented the greatest threat to freedom of press during the last six months. This period was particularly marked by increasing violence and street crime, leaving one journalist dead and others wounded, as well as an attempt on the life of another.

The approval and enacting of the Free Access to Public Information Act was a positive development.

On July 13, Congress approved the Act, subsequently enacted by the Executive Branch on July 28. The law was widely publicized throughout the country. Two Dominican dailies, El Día and Diario Libre, as well as a television journalist and former Dominican vice president have already made use of the new legislation to request information from the government.

Following a September 7 Supreme Court ruling, the courts returned editorial management of the Listín Diario to its owners. Listín Diario was impounded in the spring of 2003, in proceedings for money laundering by its owner, as part of a larger trial involving the Banco Intercontinental on charges of fraud.

After broadcasting an interview and news program, the journalist Juan Andujar was shot in the head and killed by criminals on September 13 while leaving a radio station in Azua, in the south of the country. The journalist Luis Sención was also wounded in the attack.

Among the journalists in Azua that have received threats, and have been obliged to seek police protection as a result of their anti-crime positions are the reporter for El Nacional, Juan Sánchez, as well as Domingo Corcino, Héctor Caamaño, Narciso Maríñez, Christian Ramírez and Rafael Vargas.

One of Andujar's killers died in a shootout with the police. However, the second perpetrator, Vladimir Pujols, remains at large and has not been charged.

There was an attempt on the life of journalist Euri Cabral on September 29. Two subjects on a motorcycle fired 10 shots into Cabral's vehicle as he drove home from the television station, shooting out both the front and rear windows. Neither the journalist nor his co-worker were injured in the incident.

The police began an investigation and offered Cabral and other journalists protection. However, no suspects have been named.
The disappearance on May 26, 1994 of columnist and university professor Narciso González (known as the "Narcisazo" incident) remains unsolved. He disappeared after making statements at the state university sharply criticizing then-President Joaquín Balaguer and high-ranking military officers for committing fraud in the 1994 general elections in an attempt to remain in power.