I INTRODUCTION TO THE CASE AND PURPOSE OF THE DISPUTE 1. On December 10, 2010, pursuant to that provided in Articles 51 and 61 of the American Convention and Article 35 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court, the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Inter-American Commission” or “the Commission”) presented before the jurisdiction of the Court the case of Fontevecchia and D’Amico against the Republic of Argentina (hereinafter “the State” or “Argentina”), stemming from a petition presented on November 15, 2001, by Mr. Jorge Fontevecchia, Mr. Héctor D’Amico, and Mr. Horacio Verbitsky (representing the Journalist Association), with the sponsorship of Mr. Eduardo Bertoni and Damián Loretti. 2 On October 12, 2005, the Inter-American Commission adopted the Report on Admissibility No. 51/05 3 and on July 13, 2010, approved the Report on the Merits No. 82/10, pursuant to Article 50 of the Convention, in which it provided a series of recommendations for the State. Legal notice was provided of this last report to Argentina by way of a communication on August 11, 2010, providing the State with a period of two months to report on the compliance with the recommendations. After an extension was provided and the period expired, the Commission submitted the case to the Court “for the State’s failure to comply with the recommendations and the consequent need to obtain justice and a just reparation.” The Commission appointed as delegates Mrs. Luz Patricia Mejia, Commissioner, and Mr. Santiago A. Canton, Executive Secretary, and the rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Catalina Botero, and as legal advisors, Mrs. Elizabeth Abi-Mershed, Deputy Executive Secretary, and María Claudia Pulido, Lilly Ching Soto, and Michael John Camilleri, attorneys of the Executive Secretary. 2. According to the Inter-American Commission, the present case involves the alleged violation of the right to freedom of expression of Mr. Jorge Fontevecchia and Mr. Héctor D’Amico, director and editor, respectively, of the Magazine Noticias. The alleged violation took place due to the civil sentence imposed on them by Argentine Tribunals as further liability for the publication of two articles in November 1995 in the mentioned magazine. In these publications, the journalists referred to the existence of an unacknowledged child of Carlos Saúl Menem, President of the Nation at that time, with a national representative, the relationship between the President and the representative, and the relationship between the President and his alleged child. 4 Both a Tribunal of second instance as well as the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (hereinafter “Supreme Court”) considered that there existed a violation to Mr. Menem’s private life as a consequence of those publications. The Commission, in Report on the Merits No. 82/10, considered that the civil sentence imposed on the alleged victims as further liability for the publication of the mentioned press articles did not head to the 2 On January 11, 2006, it was reported to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that, from here on, the petitioners would be Mr. Fontevecchia and Mr. D’Amico and the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS for its acronym in Spanish). On August 10, 2011, Mr. Damián Loretti resigned from representation in this case. 3 On Admissibility Report No. 51/05 of October 21, 2005 the Inter-American Commission declared admissible the petition related to the alleged violation of Articles 13 of the American Convention, in relation to Articles 1(1) and 2 therein. 4 In November of 2006, the paternity of Mr. Menem was officially declared regarding Carlos Nair Meza and, on June 2007, and Mr. Menem publically declared his paternity. Cf. Merits report No. 82/10 of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of July 13, 2010 (case file on the merits, tome I, folio 15). 3