pertaining to Luisiana Ríos; Luis Augusto Contreras Alvarado; Eduardo Sapene Granier; Javier García; Isnardo Bravo; David Pérez Hansen; Wilmer Marcano; Winston Gutiérrez and Isabel Mavarez. II. PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE COMMISSION A. Petition 7. After having received the petition, the Commission transmitted the pertinent parts to the State with a cover letter dated September 26, 2002. The Commission requested that the State submit its comments within two months, pursuant to Article 30(3) of the Commission’s Rules of Procedure. 8. On July 10, 2003, the IACHR requested additional information from the petitioners. On August 8, the IACHR received the information requested from the petitioners, transmitting it to the State on August 15, 2003. The IACHR granted the State a time limit of 30 days to present its comments. 9. On September 22, 2003, the IACHR received a request from the State for a three-month extension for submitting its comments. On September 24, 2003, the IACHR resolved to grant the State an additional 15 days to respond, as the IACHR had received no communication from the State since the petition was forwarded to it on September 26, 2002. On October 8, 2003, the State presented its comments on the petition, which were transmitted to the petitioners on October 10, 2003. 10. On October 15, 2003, the IACHR requested additional information from the State outlining in detail the action taken by the Attorney General’s Office on the claims in the petition, and identifying the remedies available to the petitioners and their effectiveness. The IACHR granted a deadline of 15 days for the State to remit the additional information requested. At the time of writing this report, the Commission had not received the information requested from the State. B. Precautionary Measures 11. On January 29, 2002, a number of employees of RCTV and Globovisión, another media outlet in Venezuela, including Luisiana Ríos, Luis Augusto Contreras and Eduardo Sapene Granier from RCTV, requested that the Commission adopt precautionary measures, based on the attacks they suffered on January 10, 2002, during their coverage of the President of the Republic’s Sunday program “Aló Presidente.” 12. On January 30, 2002, the Commission adopted precautionary measures, requesting that the Venezuelan State protect the life and physical integrity of the reporters named and abstain from any action that could have the effect of intimidating reporters and other media workers employed by Globovisión and RCTV in the exercise of their profession. The Commission further requested that the State exhaustively investigate what happened to Luisiana Ríos from RCTV and Mayela León Rodríguez from Globovisión, and the crews accompanying them, which included Luis Augusto Contreras Alvarado, Armando Amaya and Eduardo Sapene Granier of RCTV. The Commission gave the Venezuelan State a deadline of 15 days to report to the Commission on the specific action taken to comply with that request. 13. On March 11, the State responded to the request for precautionary measures, reporting that on January 31, 2002, the Attorney General of the Republic commissioned two public prosecutors from the jurisdiction of the Caracas Metropolitan Area to initiate “the corresponding investigations, for the purpose of elucidating events and establishing responsibility as appropriate.” This communication was forwarded to the petitioners on March 20, 2002. 2