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16/12/2024 08:50
On 9th December, International Anti-Corruption Day, the CASE Coalition published its annual report on SLAPPs in Europe.
Flutura Kusari: “The CASE report is the most comprehensive research on SLAPP cases in Europe and is worth reading, although it delivers bad news for journalists and activists.”
Photograph: Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash.
The CASE Coalition reports that Strategic Lawsuits Against Public
Participation (SLAPPs) are increasingly being used across Europe to silence
journalists, activists, and public watchdogs. These vexatious lawsuits aim
to stifle voices that expose wrongdoing or hold power to account, and the
problem is becoming more widespread. Added the coalition. A new report by
the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation and The Coalition Against SLAPPs in
Europe (CASE) finds that 166 SLAPPs were initiated in 2023 alone. The
increase in cases is significant, especially because the methodology for the
2024 report changed to exclude previously included state censorship cases.
The report also uncovered many more cases initiated across preceding years,
raising the total to 1,049 in the period 2010-2023.
“The CASE report is the most comprehensive research on SLAPP cases in Europe
and is worth reading, although it delivers bad news for journalists and
activists. It highlights how laws and procedures continue to be abused to
stifle public participation and underscores the urgent need for governments
and parliaments across Europe to take immediate action to stop SLAPPs,” says
Flutura Kusari, member of the steering committee of CASE.
While a notable number of SLAPPs were filed in Italy, Romania, Serbia and
Turkey in 2023, the report underscores that the problem is widespread across
Europe. In fact, SLAPPs were identified in countries that had remained
absent from previous reports, including Monaco, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, and
Denmark. CASE has now identified SLAPP lawsuits in 41 countries across
Europe.
In 2023, SLAPP cases covered a broad range of public interest matters, but
most common by far were related to corruption at 36%, followed by
environmental issues at 16%. CASE says what hasn’t changed is the target of
SLAPPs – journalists in their individual capacity remain the most likely
target, followed by media outlets, editors, activists and NGOs. Likewise,
the rich and powerful remain the most likely to initiate a SLAPP: In 2023,
almost half of lawsuits were filed by businesses and businesspersons, where
politicians were responsible for well over a third.
2024 saw some positive progress on tackling SLAPPs, with the EU adopting its
Anti-SLAPP Directive and the Council of Europe adopting a Recommendation on
combating SLAPPs. However, the report finds that, if Member States do not
commit to moving beyond the minimum standards set out in the Directive, the
overwhelming majority of SLAPP cases may fall outside of its scope.
“SLAPPs in Europe are on the rise, posing a significant threat to freedom of
expression. As these abusive legal tactics grow in frequency and severity,
it is imperative that member states draft national legislation that meets
the highest human rights standards to ensure effective protection for
journalists and activists. Under Malta’s current legislation, Daphne Caruana
Galizia would not have been protected against 90% of cases she faced,” says
Martina Urso, lead operations officer The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation.
“Not only do SLAPPs seriously harm their targets, they threaten our
democracy as a whole by jeopardizing our right to access to reliable
information. European governments need to act now, and put effective
safeguards into place so that powerful actors bringing SLAPPs are deterred
from doing so” says Emma Bergmans, Free Press Unlimited and member of the
steering committee of CASE.
SLAPPs pose a grave threat to democracy and free expression. This report
calls on policymakers, civil society, and media organizations to push for
robust implementation of anti-SLAPP measures across Europe. Without stronger
protections, CASE says public participation will continue to be eroded by
those seeking to silence dissent.
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Publish date : 2024-12-15 23:50:00
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