12.
The Commission’s request for provisional measures is based on three main points:
i) the alleged existence of a context of intimidation, threats, and persecution against
journalists following the coup d’état in Honduras; ii) alleged threats to the life and
integrity of Mr. Galdámez Álvarez, his partner, and his children; and iii) lack of
information regarding the investigations carried out by the authorities in order to bring
the events to light.
13.
Regarding this, the Court finds that the analysis of the facts and of the arguments
of the Commission regarding points i and iii – as indicated in the prior paragraph –
belong in the analysis of a potential contentious case. The Court has already noted that a
ruling on the merits is to be issued as part of a contentious proceeding before the Court
and not during proceedings on provisional measures.8 Additionally, the Court considers
that those allegations do not satisfy the requirements for the adoption of provisional
measures, in accordance with Article 63(2) of the Convention.
14.
Consequently, the Court will not take those allegations into account, as it may not
consider elements directly linked with the merits of the case, as mentioned previously.
b)
The existence of alleged threats to and attacks on the right to life and
personal integrity
15.
The Inter-American Commission has also based its request for provisional
measures on the alleged existence of threats, harassment, and attacks against the life
and personal integrity of Mr. Galdámez Álvarez, his partner, and his children, who, since
July 2009, have supposedly received threats, including death threats, on several
occasions and have been subjected to attacks and persecution (supra Having Seen 2.f).
16.
The Court observes that according to the information offered by the Commission,
which has not been contested by the State, in August 2009 Mr. Galdámez Álvarez started
to receive text messages on his cellular phone with death threats, allegedly as a
consequence of his visit to the former president of Honduras during his stay in Nicaragua
and because of the news reports he did for Radio Globo during that visit. Likewise, at the
beginning of September of 2009, two unknown persons approached two of Mr. Galdámez
Álvarez’s sons with a gun, telling them to tell their father to “shut up.” During the period
when Mr. Galdámez Álvarez was in the Brazilian Embassy reporting on the arrival of the
former president of Honduras, beginning on 21 September 2009, he apparently received
phone calls from blocked numbers which repeated the warning that he should “shut up or
die.” Since Mr. Galdámez left the Brazilian Embassy on December 21, 2009, two vehicles
began following him, one of which also surveilled his house.
17.
According to the information submitted by the Inter-American Commission, during
2010, Mr. Galdámez received numerous text messages, insults, and threats from known
telephone numbers. The Inter-American Commission did not provide the exact dates on
which those messages were received. Nevertheless, the State has not contested this
information. The Commission indicated that the day after the death of the journalist
David Meza on 11 March 2010, Mr. Galdámez Álvarez received a message that said that
he was “next.” On September 14, 2010, after finishing his news show on Canal Globo,
8
Cf. Case of James et al., supra footnote 5, Considering 6; Matter of Gladys Lanza Ochoa, Order of the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights of September 2, 2010, Considering 7, and Matter of the Colombian
Commission of Jurists. Provisional Measures regarding Colombia. Order of the Inter-American Court of Human
Rights of November 25, 2010, Considering 10.
12