European Day of Action

The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition has joined 40 other organisations and coalitions across Europe to participate in the European Day of Action against SLAPPs. Across the continent campaigners urged their respective governments to take action on SLAPPs, highlighting the systemic impact of these abusive lawsuits on European democracy by invoking leading campaigners from history.

Actions in 15 countries focused around a poignant question: where would we be if social crusaders throughout history had been successfully silenced through abusive litigation?

The Day of Action marked the first test case of the EU’s new anti-SLAPP legislation: a case brought by Greenpeace International to challenge the aggressive SLAPP pursued by the oil pipeline company Energy Transfer in North Dakota. The lawsuit invokes Chapter V of the new EU Anti-SLAPP Directive which purports to protect those domiciled in an EU Member State from SLAPPs filed in a third (i.e. non-EU) country.

Needless to say, the UK knows a thing or two about lawsuits filed by international claimants, with research by the Foreign Policy Centre finding the UK – and more specifically London – to be the leading international jurisdiction for legal threats around the world.

On the flip side some of the most egregious cases the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition has documented over the years – from the majority of those targeting Catherine Belton to Yevgeny Prigozhin’s lawsuit against Eliot Higgins – have come from claimants based overseas. While not subject to the EU directive, the obligation the UK has to protect its own residents from international SLAPPs was spelled out in Paragraph 13 of the Council of Europe recommendation passed last year.

So: why is this still a thing? This is the message we joined our European allies in communicating: we need robust and comprehensive anti-SLAPP legislation to protect European public watchdogs from SLAPPs now.

Charlie Holt, European Lead of Global Climate Legal Defense (CliDef) and Co-Chair of the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition said:

“Over a year has passed since the passage of the landmark Anti-SLAPP Directive and startlingly little progress has been made in making its protective measures a reality. Greenpeace International’s lawsuit in the Netherlands now presents Dutch courts with the first major test of the directive. In its preamble, the Directive emphasised that protection from SLAPPs filed outside of the EU was necessary to protect European democracy and safeguard human rights in the Union. If such protections cannot be invoked in a case as aggressive and transparently abusive as Energy Transfer’s, it’s hard to imagine a situation in which they would ever apply. Until we have clarity from the courts, however, European democracy will continue to remain exposed to attack by powerful private interests.”

Here are some campaign graphics that you can use to continue the campaigning to stop SLAPPs and stand in solidarity with those targeted.