Freedom of Expression/History/Country sources/Dominican Republic
What is the oldest written source in this country that mentions this right?
Dominican Republic
The 1821 Constitutive Act of the Provisional Government of the Independent State of the Spanish Part of Hayti offered a provisional guarantee of freedom of the press, and the 1844 Constitution of the Dominican Republic offered a more straightforward guarantee of press freedom.
Article 23 of the February 1854 Constitution of the Dominican Republic described freedom of expression in the context of the right to petition the government: "All Dominicans have the right of petitioning upon any matter whatsoever of public or private interest, and of expressing freely and without any responsibility, their opinion touching the same...."
Article 11.2 of the 1877 Constitution of the Dominican Republic guaranteed freedom of thought and speech as well as the press. Article 11.2 of the 1887 Constitution of the Dominican Republic guaranteed freedom of expression understood in similar terms: "The liberty of thought, expressed by speech or by means of the press without previous censure, but subject to the law...." The 1924 Constitution of the Dominican Republic offered a still broader assertion of freedom of expression, described in terms of: "The right to express thought by any medium without prior censorship."
References:
1821 Constitutive Act of the Provisional Government of the Independent State of the Spanish Part of Hayti: English translation of the Constitution of 1821 557 (2010) Constitutive Act of the Provisional Government of the Independent State of the Spanish Part of Hayti https://heinonline-org.mutex.gmu.edu/HOL/Page?collection=cow&handle=hein.cow/zzdo0002&id=8&men_tab=srchresults
1844 Constitution of the Dominican Republic: Spanish orignal text of the Constitution of 1844 [3] (2012) Chapter II: Public Right of Dominicans https://heinonline-org.mutex.gmu.edu/HOL/Page?collection=cow&handle=hein.cow/zzdo0014&id=3&men_tab=srchresults
February 1854 Constitution of the Dominican Republic: English translation of the Constitution of February 1854 1321 (2010) Chapter 2 https://heinonline-org.mutex.gmu.edu/HOL/Page?collection=cow&handle=hein.cow/zzdo0003&id=7&men_tab=srchresults
1877 Constitution of the Dominican Republic: Spanish original text of the Constitution of 1877 218 (2010) Title III: Guarantees of Dominicans https://heinonline-org.mutex.gmu.edu/HOL/Page?collection=cow&handle=hein.cow/zzdo0033&id=3&men_tab=srchresults
1887 Constitution of the Dominican Republic: English translation of the Constitution of 1887. 757 (2010) Chapter III: National Guarantees https://heinonline-org.mutex.gmu.edu/HOL/Page?collection=cow&handle=hein.cow/zzdo0006&id=3&men_tab=srchresults
1924 Constitution of the Dominican Republic: "Section I: Individual Rights," Constitution of the Dominican Republic (1924): 4-5 https://heinonline-org.mutex.gmu.edu/HOL/Page?collection=cow&handle=hein.cow/zzdo0100&id=2&men_tab=srchresults