99
.
398. The Commission stated that the alleged victims made important economic efforts in
trying to achieve justice at a domestic level and overcome the physical, moral, and
professional consequences that facts of the present case caused them. It also indicated that
“they have experimented psychological suffering, anguish, uncertainty, and alterations to
their life caused by the fact that they cannot carry out their work assignments and by virtue
of their submission to acts of persecution, harassment, and physical and moral attacks; the
consequences, both personal and professional, of those acts,” for which it asked the Court
to order payment of a compensation for non-pecuniary damages.
399.
At the same time, the Commission asked the Court to order the State:
a) to adopt measures to cease the violations, including all those necessary to avoid illegal restrictions or
direct or indirect hindrances on the exercise of the right to freedom of expression analyzed in this case from
continuing or being repeated. Venezuela must adopt reasonable measures to prevent individuals from
illegitimately interfering with the exercise of freedom of expression. In this sense, the Sate shall punish all
illegitimate actions that seek to silence expression.
b) to carry out a fair and exhaustive investigation in order to prosecute and punish all the perpetrators and
instigators of the facts object of the present case and make the result of those investigations public.
c) to grant the victims, employees of RCTV access to official sources of information and allow them to cover
news stories, that is, the exercise of the right to freedom of expression. Additionally […] that the State adopt
measures destined to the moral and professional rehabilitation of the victims, in that sense, the Commission
requests that the Court order, among others, the publication of the judgment eventually issued by the Tribunal
in a newspaper with national circulation; and to make a public acknowledgment of the state’s responsibility for
the damage caused and the violations occurred;
d) to adopt, as a priority, the legislative, administrative, and any other measure necessary to avoid acts of
both the State and individuals that could hinder the search, receipt, and imparting of information by social
communicators and any associated personnel.
e) to repair the pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages that the behavior of the State’s bodies have caused to
the victims; and
f) to pay the costs and expenses incurred in by the victims and their representatives in the processing of the
case both at a national level and those originated in the processing of the present case before the InterAmerican System.
400. The representatives did not present arguments on pecuniary damages. With regard
to the non-pecuniary damages they mentioned that the alleged victims had to suffer the
constant satire and public despise to which they were submitted by public authorities and
the “supporters and partisans of the ruling party,” as well as the lack of a serious, diligent,
and effective investigation by state authorities to determine what had happened and identify
and punish those responsible, which has resulted in considerable infringements. Therefore,
they asked that the Court order the compensation in equity for the non-pecuniary damages
caused.
401.
Additionally, the representatives asked the Court to Order the State to:
a)
Adopt the appropriate measures necessary to cease and prevent the acts of State officials and
representatives, as well as from individuals, which may hinder the search, access, demonstration, and
diffusion of information by social communicators and the media, in this case RCTV; thus guaranteeing full
exercise of the freedom of expression in the Venezuelan society and the victims of the present case;
b)
Cease the governmental measures that imply an indirect restriction to the right to freedom of expression
verified in the Application, such as: the speeches made by public officials exposing social communicatoris
to attacks and threats from individual partisans of the government; the interventions in the broadcasts of
RCTV; and the threats to annul or not renew RCTV’s concession, based on the independent editorial line
and criticism of the government adopted by RCTV;
c)
Adopt appropriate measures that can cease and prevent acts that, in the task of searching, accessing,
expressing, and diffusing information, affect the personal integrity of the victims in the present case; and
to solve them in a timely and effective manner in those situations in which acts of State officials and
representatives and individuals may affect personal integrity;