Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1371118
15 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 12 MAY 2021 ANALYSIS In anti-SLAPP proposals, MEPs want to see vexatious lawsuits dismissed and plaintiffs punished This article is part of a content series called Ewropej. This is a multi-newsroom initiative part-funded by the European Parliament to bring the work of the EP closer to the citizens of Malta and keep them informed about matters that affect their daily lives. These articles reflect only the authors' view. The European Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. DAVID LINDSAY MEPS Roberta Metsola and Tiemo Woelken have unveiled joint LIBE-JURI Committee proposals on EU-wide legis- lation aimed at prohibiting libel tourism in the form of SLAPP lawsuits against journalists and NGOs. The proposals also call for the em- powerment of judges to take a priori decisions to immediately dismiss what they consider to be vexatious lawsuits, while also seeing those filing them sanc- tioned. Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) are lawsuits primarily intended to cause a chilling effect on critical media by burdening them with costs and expenses. This is usually done by taking libel ac- tion in other jurisdictions that levy high libel fines and where court costs are prohibitive. The Maltese media stands at particular risk of such lawsuits filed in foreign ju- risdictions, past experience has shown, and libel fines are capped at EUR11,000, for good reason given Malta's particular economies of scale. As such, the legislation is seen as es- sential for Malta's media, which, given their size, are prime targets for SLAPP lawsuits by large corporations. Rapporteurs Maltese EPP MEP Rob- erta Metsola and S&D German MEP Tiemo Wolken on Tuesday spoke about the set of EU-wide proposals - which, they foresee, would be made binding across the bloc – after a joint hearing of European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE) and the Committee on Legal Af- fairs (JURI). Metsola set a timeline of seeing a first vote on a final report by October, which she said would be a "watershed moment for freedom of press, of expression and the protection of journalists. "The freedom of journalists to do their jobs cannot be uncoupled from the pro- tection of our democracy. We are talk- ing about two sides of the same coin. Protecting journalists and the truth means protecting our way of life." Journalists, civil society activists and NGOs, she said, are all facing threats "designed to influence their work, to si- lence critical stories, and to ultimately make journalists the enemy. This unac- ceptable. "SLAPPs are abuse and we are deter- mined to take a stand against them. We have seen forum shopping in libel cases taken to the extreme. This is not limit- ed to one member state or another, we have seen similar cases to varying de- grees across the whole EU." Noting how such lawsuits cost great sums y just to be filed and then fought in foreign jurisdictions, Metsola said journalists are far too often faced with a choice: stop reporting the facts, or face a costly and lengthy lawsuit in another country. "Journalists often lose the case before they even start. In some member states, cases are filed against them in their per- sonal capacities [such as in the case of Malta]. This means they face the pros- pect that if they leave if they leave a me- dia house, mounting a defence would become practically impossible, and these individuals get what they want: the story is effectively killed." Judges should be able to throw out vexatious lawsuits a priori The proposals also call for a system whereby judges would be able to take a priori decisions that would see obvious- ly vexatious lawsuits dismissed quickly, but, Metsola said, that means investing in training and creating systems. One of the main difficulties faced by the victims of such lawsuits, Metsola said, is not only the financial incapaci- ty to be able to fight them, but the cost in resources that are imposed on courts and media houses in trying to stop them. "We also find that judges and lawyers in the EU having dealt with such spe- cific cases are very few and far between because we are not only longer talking about what appears in the print media and how to protect it but also the way social media has evolved. So we are dealing with a very new type of frame- work that we need to navigate." Additionally, she said, the aim was to introduce sanctions against those "who abuse our libel and defamation laws to try to target journalists. "We also need to see how we can square the circle of new media being online and therefore accessible every- where, with the rights of journalists to be able to defend themselves where they are based. "We stand in line with the truth seek- ers and our values must be reflected in our laws." MEPs are proposing introducing minimum standards to protect journalists and NGOs against SLAPP suits across the EU, empowering judges to dismiss vexatious lawsuits and to levy sanctions against those who file them