CASE: Expert Brief on the European Commission’s EU anti-SLAPP Proposals

The European Commission’s proposals represent a crucial first step forward in the fight against SLAPPs in Europe.

The CASE expert brief is meant to provide advice to policy makers at the EU institutions and national government level on how to build on the proposals to ensure the strongest
possible set of EU and national anti-SLAPP rules.

The Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) welcomes the European Commission’s anti-SLAPP initiative presented on 27 April 2022 as a crucial first step forward in tackling the growing problem of abusive litigation targeting journalists, activists and other public watchdogs across Europe.

Among the main suggestions, the need for:

- a parallel review of the legal framework on defamation

- a comprehensive regime of penalties and other dissuasive measures

- effective protective measures

- key procedural safeguards to fight back any SLAPPs.

The full text of the policy brief is available here.

This content is part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response  (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries. The project is co-funded by the European Commission.