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Dominican Gunmen Shoot Up Ex-WTVJ/NBC6 Anchor's Newsroom

UPDATED: 10:08 am EST February 5, 2007

MIAMI -- We knew that when Alicia Ortega and her husband Fernando Hasbun decided to return to Fernando?s home town in the Dominican Republic to produce ?American Style? television news, it was going to be an adventure. It got pretty scary last Thursday night. Just before Alicia was signing on the 11 p.m. news adventure arrived in the form of four gun-toting thugs who shot up the SIN newsroom.

No one was hurt.

Alicia and Fernando operate the Santo Domingo-based National Informative System, SIN. Alicia anchors the national newscast and has carved out a nationwide following in the Spanish-speaking country that shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

I first met Alicia and Fernando when both worked for Univision?s Channel 23 in Miami. That was back in 1992. Alicia and Fernando worked as a team. Fernando was the cameraman but he was much more. He had vision and worked his way into management. Alicia and Fernando later married. We would see them, though not often enough, as we were all in the midst of our careers. Fernando would talk about going back to the D.R. to produce TV news.

Along the way we persuaded Alicia to take a crack at English language TV and she did just that sitting next to WTVJ anchor Bob Mayer as NBC began to beef up the morning news. Alicia was no fluff. She?d tackle the toughest news stories in the street after getting off the air.

After they established themselves in Santo Domingo they would occasionally get back to Miami. I got to see some of their work. They indeed produced American style news, and being somewhat familiar with the status of the news media in Spanish-speaking nations, I was surprised at the quality and no-holds-barred TV news they were putting on the air.

So when my wife told me that Alicia and Fernando?s news operation was attacked I was certainly alarmed, fearful for two friends, and yet not surprised.

At this writing, though I have tried, I have not talked directly with Alicia or Fernando but those close to them tell me from the D.R. that they are fine and pushing ahead. Quoted in a Santo Domingo newspaper Alicia said, if the gunmen ?are trying to intimidate us we are going to continue with our objective work whether they like it or not.?

Recently SIN has been producing a number of stories on the drug trade. But Fernando told reports that it would be speculation that the drug stories prompted the attack. He also said nothing would change at the news operation, ?we will continue with the same line, the same information, the same opinion.?

Police are investigating the incident that occurred right across the street from the National Lottery building in downtown Santo Domingo. Witnesses said the shooters sped away in a red Toyota.

No one is going to intimidate these two. They set a goal long ago and are now living it out. Alicia can be a pretty tough cookie and I always remember the picture of Fernando?s grandmother. The framed photo was on display in their home in Miami. She is standing amongst a bunch of tough looking cab drivers and their cabs. ?She operated the largest taxi company in Santo Domingo, and that was in the 1930?s,? Fernando told me one evening. I have never forgotten that picture, strong lady, strong grandson.

http://www.nbc6.net/news/10928573/detail.html

To read the article (in Spanish) on the SIN Web site