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SLAPPs: Campaigners welcome law to protect UK journalists from some intimidation lawsuits [1]
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Date: 2023-06
Campaigners for press freedom have welcomed an amendment that will make it harder to silence UK journalists exposing economic crime – but have urged the government to go further in cracking down on intimidation lawsuits.
A new addition to the Economic Crime Bill will for the first time offer individuals in England and Wales some formal protection from aggressive legal action known as SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation), granting judges power to dismiss cases that meet the criteria at an early stage.
The amendment is being introduced in the House of Lords today. It is backed by the government and is likely to become law when the bill is passed later this year.
Labour MP Margaret Hodge welcomed the development but called on the government to do more to stop the rich and powerful from using London courts to silence those exposing corruption.
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Hodge, who chairs Parliament's all-party group on anti-corruption, told openDemocracy: “This is a great win for those looking to shine the spotlight on economic crime and speaking truth to power.
“For years, we have been tirelessly campaigning to put an end to vexatious legal action designed to silence journalists, activists and whistleblowers trying to expose wrongdoing. This is a step in the right direction. Now it must be broadened out to all defamation lawsuits to be truly effective.”
In November, openDemocracy joined forces with over 70 leading editors, publishers, lawyers and journalists to call on the government to make good on its promises to reform the law to protect journalists in the UK from these notorious lawsuits.
The UK has become the leading international source of legal threats against journalists investigating financial crime and corruption, according to research by the Foreign Policy Centre think tank in 2020.
The government previously promised to introduce new specific legislation to address the problem.
Its decision to instead pursue a more limited approach of amending existing legislation means only cases relating to exposing economic crime will be impacted – which wouldn’t include some of the most notorious SLAPP cases.
Susan Coughtrie, director of the Foreign Policy Centre, said the amendment was a “crucial step” in stopping those benefiting from economic crime from blocking scrutiny of their wrongdoing.
But she pointed out that the new measures wouldn’t have been applicable to the infamous lawsuit brought by Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin against UK journalist Eliot Higgins, as Higgins' reporting related to Prigozhin’s role as head of the Wagner group, rather than his financial affairs.
“This is only a partial success story – the UK government must move as quickly as possible to ensure such protections are available to all those subject to SLAPPs, regardless of the subject matter,” Coughtrie told openDemocracy.
The new measures will include a provision for early dismissal of cases deemed to be SLAPPs related to economic crime. It will not include measures to cap costs on defendants’ legal bills – a key demand from campaigners – which would require secondary legislation.
The government has reiterated its pledge to introduce such a cap as part of the wider package of reforms and said the amendment is the “first step” in cracking down on SLAPPs. It repeated its promise to introduce further legislation “when parliamentary time allows”.
The co-chair of the anti-SLAPPs coalition, Charlie Holt, welcomed the progress but said separate legislation was still required.
“With no provision for compensating those targeted by SLAPPs or sanctioning those who pursue them, the amendment is no substitute for a standalone anti-SLAPP law – but it represents significant progress,” he said.
It’s expected that the definition of SLAPP in the amendment will include a recognition of the economic imbalance that is often a hallmark of such abusive cases, in which powerful individuals use the threat of escalating legal costs to silence comment and curtail scrutiny.
It’s also thought that the new legislation will allow judges to consider if claimants are abusing the legal process by targeting an individual journalist rather than their employer, in an attempt to use the economic imbalance to their advantage.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/slapps-new-amendment-protect-journalists-first-step-economic-crime-bill-lawsuits-silencing/
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