Commission Recommendation (EU) 2022/758 on protecting journalists and human rights defenders who engage in public participation from manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings (‘Strategic lawsuits against public participation’)

Summary:

Recommendation (EU) 2022/758 - adopted by the European Commission on 27 April 2022 - concerning the protection of journalists and human rights defenders who engage in public participation from manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings (‘Strategic lawsuits against public participation’).

Further information:

Strategic lawsuits against public participation (also known as SLAPPs) are seen as a particularly harmful form of harassment and intimidation used against those involved in protecting the public interest. They are groundless or exaggerated court proceedings typically initiated by powerful individuals, lobby groups, corporations and state organs against parties who express criticism or communicate messages that are uncomfortable to the claimants, on a matter of public interest. Their purpose is to censor, intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defence until they abandon their criticism or opposition. he ultimate goal is to achieve a chilling effect, silence the defendants and deter them from pursuing their work.

Many SLAPPs occur in domestic context and do not have cross-border implications. However, SLAPPs often have a cross‑border nature and where cross-border implications exist, they add an extra layer of complexity and costs, with even more adverse consequences for defendants. The fact that online media content is accessible across jurisdictions may open the way for forum shopping and hamper effective access to justice and judicial cooperation. Defendants may face multiple court proceedings at the same time and in different jurisdictions.

This Recommendation invites Member States of the European Union (EU) to review their national situation to ensure that their applicable legal frameworks provide for the necessary safeguards to address SLAPPs in full respect of fundamental rights. Member States are also encouraged to include in their national laws similar safeguards for domestic cases as those included in EU-wide instruments that seek to address manifestly unfounded or abusive cases for civil matters with cross-border implications. The text also covers aspects related to the training of legal professionals and potential targets to improve their knowledge and skills to effectively deal with SLAPPs, awareness raising in particular aimed at enabling journalists and human rights defenders to recognize when they are facing a SLAPP, support to targets of SLAPPs and a more systematic monitoring and data collection.

The Recommendation was adopted by the European Commission on 27 April 2024 as one of the actions under the European Democracy Action Plan, and alongside a related and complementing draft Directive. It was published in the Official Journal on 17 May 2022.

Official

EUR-LEX: SWD(2022)117: Staff Working Document accompanying the Proposal - Analytical Supporting Document https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=SWD:2022:117:FIN

European Commission: Press Release, 27/04/2022: Commission tackles abusive lawsuits against journalists and human rights defenders ‘SLAPPs' https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_2652

European Commission: Speech by Vice-President Jourová on abusive lawsuits against journalists and human rights defenders ‘SLAPPs' (27 April 2022) https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_22_2705

European Commission: Press remarks by Vice-President Jourová on the EU action against abusive litigation (SLAPP) targeting journalists and rights defenders (27 April 2022) https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_22_2705

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