Suppressing Stories: How legal threats and challenges impact investigative journalism - Article

An online event organized by the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC), Index on Censorship and the Justice for Journalists Foundation: Tuesday 4 May from 5 to 6.30 pm

ENI's abuse of SLAPPs: a letter to the European Commission - Article

Together with several ngos, we co-signed a letter to the European Commission highlighting the need for the upcoming European Commission’s initiative on SLAPPs to include a legislative proposal for an anti-SLAPP Directive that will protect all watchdogs from SLAPPs and legal intimidation tactics, currently used extensively by fossil fuel companies in Europe. On this occasion, the attention goes to the use of SLAPPs by the partly government-owned Italian oil company Eni Spa (“Eni”), who is suing the Italian paper Il Fatto Quotidiano for 29 articles on the company's activities.

Romania: concern about abusive legal action by former bishop against journalists and outlets - Article

The undersigned civil society organisations are concerned about the legal action taken by a former bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Church against The Centre for Investigative Media (CIM), Dela0.ro and three journalists, in relation to their reporting on alleged sexual abuse. We consider the proceedings have many of the characteristics of a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) and hope the courts will deal with them swiftly with due respect for European human rights law and standards

Media Freedom Rapid Response concerned about attacks and threats to journalists reporting on agro-business in Brittany - Article

On Earth Day 2021, the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) is concerned about repeated attacks, threats and intimidation of journalists and media workers reporting on the agro-food industry in Brittany. These attacks, legal threats, harassment and intimidation must end and we call on all relevant public authorities to take the necessary measures to enable critical reporting on this issue

Thematic factsheet: SLAPP in Italy, a democratic emergency - Article

by Paola Rosà

A limited selection of cases from an ocean of lawsuits. A paper sent to the INI rapporteurs of the Draft Report on the strengthening democracy and media freedom and pluralism in the EU: the undue use of actions under civil and criminal law to silence journalists, NGOs and civil society

MFRR condemns defamation lawsuit against Gazeta Wyborcza Editor-in-Chief by Polish Justice Minister - Article

The partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) today strongly condemn the civil defamation lawsuit launched against the editor-in-chief of Poland’s biggest daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza by the serving Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro

Solidarity with the Swedish media outlet Realtid ahead of the first hearing in their UK defamation case - Article

Twenty-four organisations express their solidarity with the Swedish business and finance publication, Realtid, its editor, and the two journalists being sued for defamation in London. Realtid are due before the High Court tomorrow for a two-day remote hearing that will decide whether England and Wales is the appropriate jurisdiction for the case to be heard

Trouble with the Truth - Article

Trouble with the Truth is the podcast produced by Lana Estemirova in partnership with the Justice for Journalists Foundation. Lana talks to brave and resilient journalists from around the world who face persecution just for doing their job and lets her audience hear voices that usually remain hidden behind the curtain

New website of the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe - Article

CASE is a coalition of NGOs from across Europe representing a range of different public watchdogs united in recognition of the threat posed to their work by Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), abusive lawsuits designed to silence critical speech. Join CASE for the launch of their new website on 26 March, 11:30am CET

France: one defamation action dropped, but the threat remains - Article

The MFRR welcomes the dropping of the defamation action against Inès Léraud but vexatious legal threats continue to threaten media freedom across Europe