ORDER OF THE INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF DECEMBER 6, 2001 PROVISIONAL MEASURES IN THE MATTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF COSTA RICA THE LA NACIÓN NEWSPAPER CASE HAVING SEEN: 1. The brief of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Commission” or “the Inter-American Commission”) of March 28, 2001, in which it submitted a request for provisional measures in favor of Mauricio Herrera Ulloa and Fernán Vargas Rohrmoser, journalist and legal representative of the La Nación newspaper of Costa Rica, respectively, so that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “the Court” or “the Inter-American Court”) would request the State of Costa Rica (hereinafter “the State” or “Costa Rica”): a) to suspend the execution of the condemnatory judgment delivered by the Criminal Trial Court of the First Judicial Circuit of San José of November 12, 1999, until the Commission had examined the case and, pursuant to Article 50 of the American Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Convention” or “the American Convention”), had adopted a final decision on the merits of the matter or, should the case be brought before the Court, the latter had delivered the corresponding judgment; b) to abstain from executing any action aimed at including the journalist, Mauricio Herrera Ulloa, in the Judicial Record of Offenders of Costa Rica, and c) to abstain from executing any other act that might affect the freedom of expression of the journalist, Mauricio Herrera Ulloa, and the La Nación newspaper. In brief, the Commission justified this request as follows: a) the journalist, Mauricio Herrera Ulloa, was criminally convicted for four libel-related offenses, owing to articles published in the La Nación newspaper reproducing publications in a European newspaper, which concerned a “controversial” Costa Rican public official accredited by the Costa Rican foreign service to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna; and b) the judgment of the Criminal Trial Court of the First Judicial Circuit of San José ordered: 40 days of fines at two thousand five hundred colones a day for each of the four offenses, for a total of one hundred and sixty days of fines and, in application of the rules for this type of proceeding, the penalty was reduced to three times the highest fine imposed, that is to one hundred and twenty days of fines, which would amount to three hundred thousand colones; the civil action for compensatory damages was declared admissible and Mauricio Herrera Ulloa and Periódico La Nación, S.A., represented by Fernán Vargas Rohrmoser, as the persons jointly liable, were condemned to