Jourová Says Countries Where Journalists Killed Must Stop SLAPP Suits

She wouldn't name them – Malta and Slovakia – but European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourová said countries where journalists have been murdered must offer more protections, including against SLAPP suits aimed at silencing them.

At an online panel kicking off a website for the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE), Malta's The Shift, an investigative journalist site, noted the government has done little to protect journalists or stop them from being sued for doing their job.

Powerful interests with the financial means use the Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) suit route to typically try to censor, intimidate or muzzle critics by burying them with the cost of a defense until they give up.

Investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, killed by a car bomb on Malta in October 2017 as she was probing corruption between the government and mob ties, was hit with 47 SLAPP suits. After her death, 24 of them passed on to her family.

Jourová told the site that, “It's not a rosy picture at all. I don’t want to name and shame, but of course, countries that already have murdered journalists should do more than others. I would expect they do more because they have experience”.

That came after she tweeted that, “Journalists should not risk their reputation or economic survival due to ingenuous lawsuits. #SLAPPs can be a serious threat for #democratic participation. Therefore, they require a robust response”.

Jourová, now in charge of Values and Transparency, was the EU's Justice Minister when Galizia was killed and Slovakian investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, 27, and his fiancée, Martina Kusnirova, were murdered in February 2018.

Businessman Marian Kocner was acquitted of ordering the murder of Kuciak, who threatened to expose a web of corruption involving the nation’s political and corporate elites and organized crime.

Jourová admitted the EU can't force member states to implement protections other than political pressure that hasn't worked, but said in her keynote address that the COVID-19 pandemic has made work more difficult and dangerous for journalists.

“We all know that corruption, fraud, and political corruption only see the light of day because journalists work hard with sources and whistleblowers. Media and journalists need to be protected so they can fulfill their function,” she said.

Blueprint for Free Speech has submitted to the European Commission a report called Media Freedom Facing SLAPP, with the same concerns as Jourová and journalists facing the suits.

It noted that "Journalists and public watchdogs are exposed to serious risks in Malta," including intimidation, threats, harassment, smears, arrest, detention, assault and being barred from access to information.

Among Blueprint's recommendations were for more effective anti-SLAPP measures including a directive to deter their use and have suits dismissed early in the legal process to thwart rising legal costs.

Jourová said financial and political pressure placed upon journalists through physical threats, online threats, and the more frequent appearance of SLAPPs is a “very dangerous trend” especially during the pandemic where governments are using it to consolidate power.

Galizia's son, Andrew Caruana Galizia, said she was buried under the suits that would have impoverished her, and the current government was not acting to stop other journalists from getting the same pressure.

“My mother always had a very stoic approach to these cases… but in the last year of her life, it became unbearable. She spent a significant amount of time in court, her bank accounts were frozen – this had a huge impact on her work. She left so much unfinished at the time of her death,” he said.

Even with her gone, he said the SLAPPs alleging libel by her reporting could bring damages to the family of hundreds of thousands of euros, a likely chilling effect on other journalists too.

Moderator Sarah Clarke from ARTICLE 19 said, “If the Maltese government wanted to show its determination to solve the investigation and show support to the family the politicians could have withdrawn the suits, but they have failed to do so.”