The Action Plan for Democracy, presented last December (see EUROPE 12615/1) by the European Commission’s Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, demonstrated an awareness within the institution of the proliferation of SLAPPs in the EU.
‘Strategic lawsuits against public participation’ - or ‘SLAPPs’ - refer to legal actions taken against individuals, especially journalists, with the aim of silencing them.
Jourová confirmed on Friday 26 March that a Commission proposal to end SLAPPs would be presented by the end of the year. “To do this, we will still need time”, she said, explaining that the institution was still in the process of taking stock of the situation.
She was speaking at an event to mark the launch of the website of the NGO coalition CASE (Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe), which was set up to combat this abusive practice.
“The work you are doing in CASE will be very useful to us and we will use your website as a tool”, the vice-president said, adding that the nature of the forthcoming proposal was yet to be determined.
“I would prefer it to be binding legislation”, Jourová said, although she hinted that it could be a regulation, a directive or a non-legislative proposal.
Model directive
CASE – which points out that cases of SLAPP against journalists, rights defenders and activist groups “are constantly reported on the continent” – is in no doubt that it is a binding text that is expected.
A European text “would ensure a high and uniform level of protection against SLAPPs in all EU countries”, the coalition says.
It has therefore developed a “model directive” that would ensure that SLAPPs are dismissed at an early stage of the proceedings so that they do not drag on for years, that perpetrators are exposed and punished, that powerful figures are deterred from resorting to these practices, and that victims of SLAPPs are given help to defend themselves in court.
Present at the event, Andrew Caruana Galizia, the son of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Maltese investigative journalist murdered in 2017, was asked about the impact of SLAPPs on his mother’s work.
“In the last year of her life, it became impossible”, he said, adding that about 95% of the 47 defamation cases filed against her were filed that year.
“She spent a lot of time in court, every week, her bank account was frozen... She worked at night, leaving a lot of work unfinished. This had a fundamental impact on her work”, he insisted. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)