On Monday 18 December, the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on EU Member States to “rise to the challenge” of transposing the directive aimed at combating ‘SLAPPs’ into national law. The EU Council and the European Parliament reached a political agreement on this dossier on 30 November (see EUROPE 13304/5).
“For journalists to be fully protected, it is essential that Member States extend the directive’s procedural guarantees to criminal proceedings and national cases”, commented RSF’s representative to the EU, Julie Majerczak.
As a reminder, the text provides for procedural safeguards to be put in place to enable “manifestly unfounded” lawsuits to be dismissed quickly and those who file ‘SLAPPs’ to be penalised.
In addition, victims of ‘SLAPPs’ will be able to claim compensation for damages suffered, and courts will be able to order the plaintiff to pay all the costs of the proceedings, including legal representation for the defendant.
In recent months, a number of legislative initiatives have focused on the protection of journalists and press freedom. On Friday 15 December, the European co-legislators also reached a political agreement on the Media Freedom Act (see EUROPE 13315/6), a text on which work at technical level will continue in January. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)