2
aggression and harassment [and that] the general status of the prevailing
situation in Venezuela ha[d] generated a climate of constant threats and
aggression against freedom of expression, and specifically against the
personal safety of journalists, cameramen, photographers and other social
communication workers;”
c.
that “[t]he incidents reported include[d] the murder of a journalist[,]
attacks against physical safety including bullet wounds[,] threats[,]
explosives placed in the media, and professional discrediting [and that the]
situation described above ha[d] an intimidating effect on social
communicators who feare[d] to identify themselves as journalists due to the
reprisals they m[ight] suffer;”
d.
that “statements by high Government officials against the media and
investigative journalists have continued, and these may stimulate subsequent
acts of intimidation or attacks against journalists [and that, in turn,]
investigation of such acts by public authorities [has] not yield[ed] positive
results regarding identification of the perpetrators of those acts;”
e.
that on January 30 or 29,1 2002, the Commission asked Venezuela to
adopt precautionary measures in favor of Luisiana Ríos and Armando Amaya,
among others, with the aim of protecting their right to humane treatment and
freedom of expression based on the fact that while exercising their role as
journalists “after [...] two journalists stepped out of their respective vehicles,
a group of roughly fifty [...] people located outside the Cajigal Observatory,
surrounded [their] vehicles and beat them, kicking them and yelling insults
and vulgarities at them.” In light of the above, the Commission requested
that the State:
1)
Adopt all necessary measures to protect the life and the right to
humane treatment of Luisiana Ríos, Luis Augusto Contreras Alvarado, Armando
Amaya, Eduardo Sapene Granier of Radio Caracas Televisión and Mayela León
Rodríguez, Jorge Manuel Paz Paz and María Fernanda Flores of Globovisión as
well as the protection required by representatives of Globovisión and Radio
Caracas Televisión so as to ensure safety of the journalists, the property and
facilities of said media.
2)
To abstain from any actions that might have an intimidating effect on
the professional work of journalists and other employees of media companies
Globovisión and Radio Caracas Televisión.
3)
To conduct an extensive investigation of the facts occurred on January
20, 2002 against journalists Luisiana Ríos and Mayela León Rodríguez, pf Radio
Caracas Televisión and Globovisión, respectively, and the technical teams who
were with them at the time[;]
f.
that the aforementioned acts (supra 2, a, b, c, and d) have “continued
despite the precautionary measures granted” by the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights;
g.
that the Commission “deems that those acts of harassment, physical
attacks and threats have a multiplier effect regarding violations of the human
1
The Inter-American Commission refers indistinctly, in its request for Provisional Measures, to the
granting of precautionary measures in the instant case on January 29 or January 30 (see below, Having
Seen 2.k).
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