37
.
130. Similarly, other actions were directed against RCTV. For example, it was proven that
on June 3, 2004 the headquarters of the station RCTV were attacked violently by
individuals, who hindered the work of the station, they tried to force security doors that
grant access to the station by setting fire to a company truck, they fired shots against the
building and they wrote insults on the walls (infra para. 264). It was also proven that on
August 14, 2003 a numerous group of individuals made violent protests outside the
installations of the channel, during which unidentified individuals made paintings with
different inscriptions (infra para. 237). Finally, in several of the facts it was verified that
vehicles and transmission equipment of the station resulted damaged by unidentified
individuals (infra paras. 200, 224, 237, and 264).
131. It is clear that in the mentioned periods of time the people with a work relationship
with RCTV, or part of its journalistic operation, faced threatening, intimidating situations
that put their rights at risk. In effect, since January 2002 the Commission issued
precautionary measures in favor of the employees of RCTV105 and since November 2002 this
Tribunal ordered Venezuela to adopt provisional protection measures in favor of the people
linked to RCTV (supra paras. 20 through 29). Additionally, as indicated, the State
mentioned protection orders issued by domestic Venezuelan bodies. The majority of the
facts analyzed were denounced before state authorities, specifically the Public Prosecutors’
Office (supra para. 289). This proves that the State was aware of these situations.
132. The representatives argued that the physical attacks of which the journalists and
other employees of RCTV have been object “are a natural consequence of the aggressive
and violent discourse of the President of the Republic and other high authorities,” since “it is
[not] a coincidence that a few days after a violent verbal attack of the President of the
Republic against the media or specifically against RCTV, during the journalistic coverage of
the next public event, violent episodes occur against the journalists of RCTV or its
property.” They stated that another aspect of the pattern of aggression consists “of the
internalization of these ideas in Venezuelans who follow and are partisans of the President,”
who have felt directly or indirectly supported by the State and, therefore, entitled to
physically and morally attack the station, its journalists, employees, and directors.
133. In this regard, the Court observes that in its Report on merits the Commission made
the following consideration:106
262.
As has been proven, the acts of harassment, physical and verbal aggressions, and
threats received by the alleged victims of the present case […] result from both acts and
omissions of State officials, as well as from individual acts. The petitioners argue that the
majority of the acts of individuals […] originate in organized groups such as the Bolivarian Circles
and “semi-public groups” like the M-28 Movement, the Tupamaro Movement, the Carapacia
Movement, and the Bolivarian Liberation Front “openly financed and acknowledged by the
Government with State resources […] indoctrinated and supplied with weapons to defend the
revolutionary project sought by the President,” who act in collaboration and coordination with the
government.
263.
Despite those arguments, the Commission does not have sufficient elements to be able
to make a clear analysis of the legal characteristics of each of these groups, nor can it determine
which of the physical and verbal attacks were in fact carried out by each of the organizations or
movements previously mentioned or by individuals.
264.
The Commission cannot leave out the fact that there are evidentiary elements that
105
Through the adoption of those measures, the Commission asked the State that it abstain from carrying
out any action that may have an intimidating effect on the professional exercise of the journalists and other
employees that worked at the communication firms Globovisión and RCTV, as well as the adoption of the measures
necessary to protect the safety of all the employees and the properties of the channels mentioned.
106
IACHR. Report on merits No. 119/06 of October 26, 2006, paras. 262 to 265 (dossier of evidence, volume
I, folios 63-64).