International Progress
European Institutions
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European Commission
Months after Daphne’s murder, a cross-party group of MEPs called on the European Commission to protect people from the SLAPP harassment Daphne was subjected to:
“The cross-border nature of investigative journalism as well as the tendency to pursue legal action in jurisdictions outside the EU that only have a tenuous connection with the parties justifies and requires an EU response. We therefore reiterate our call for the European Commission to expediently propose an EU Anti-SLAPP Directive”.
In December 2020, to raise awareness of what a directive could look like, civil society engaged a wide range of experts including academics, lawyers, practitioners, SLAPP targets and policy and advocacy specialists, to develop a model law that looked into the value added, the feasibility and the key components of possible EU anti-SLAPP legislation.
This was followed by the European Commission Democracy Action Plan, which included a commitment to set up an expert group on SLAPPs in early 2021 and present an initiative to protect journalists and civil society against SLAPPs in late 2021. On 11 November 2021, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on SLAPPs, calling on the Commission to propose a directive, including early dismissal mechanisms, to address the increasing number of SLAPPs against journalists, NGOs, academics and civil society within the Union. The proposed directive was published by the European Commission in April 2022 and while it needed to be built upon in order to ensure meaningful protection against abusive lawsuits targeting public watchdogs such as journalists, human rights defenders, and civil society organisations engaging in public participation it was a step in the right direction.