Protect the Protest. Stopping SLAPP. Defending Dissent - Support Centres

A task force of nonprofit organizations that have long dealt with SLAPP threats (threats coming from strategic lawsuits against public participation).

The organizations of "Protect the Protest" have combined their expertise and collective power to protect the free speech of public interest advocates in the United States.

They declare: "An attack on one is now an attack on all".

The task force includes experienced lawyers, journalists, communications professionals, and activists, in order to stand together as one to expose courtroom bullying, and protect the right to boldly speak the truth.

The approach is threefold:

● Building Resilience to SLAPPs - providing resources and training for civil society organizations, community leaders, journalists, and the broader public on how to best protect themselves from SLAPPs and what to do if they’re targeted. This includes a network of attorneys to defend those facing SLAPPs, especially individuals and small organizations with extremely limited resources.

● Exposing SLAPPs and Those Who File Them - drawing on their own organizations’ campaigning, communications, and legal expertise to support public interest advocates and watchdogs targeted by SLAPPs. This includes campaigning against the biggest SLAPP offenders, as well as legal defense where resources allow.

● Campaigning on Strategic Issues - When a specific SLAPP poses a broader threat to civil society or to democracy, they mobilize their collective resources to protect the rights to free speech and peaceful protest. Likewise, when opportunities arise to advance anti-SLAPP policies or laws, we engage in close collaboration with other stakeholders.

Taking Control? Internet Censorship and Surveillance in Russia - Reports

A report by Reporters without Borders based on about 30 interviews with journalists, activists, lawyers and human rights defenders. It traces the development from the first bans on content in 2012 to Autumn 2019

Understanding Information Disorder - Manuals

An essential guide by Claire Draft, First Draft US director and co-founder

2019 World Press Freedom Index - Monitoring tool

Only 24% of the 180 countries and territories considered are classified as “good” (coloured white on the Press Freedom Map) or “fairly good” (yellow), as opposed to 26% last year. These are the main findings of this year’s Index by Reporters Without Borders

Newspapers that never arrive - Reports

Newspapers are made not only by journalists: starting from this statement, this pretty original report highlights the importance of printers, transporters, distributors, and retailers as “essential links in the long and complex press distribution chain”

Last Despatches - Monitoring tool

BIRN’s Last Despatches series tells the stories of some of the reporters killed during and after the 1990s war in the Balkans, and highlights how attempts to secure justice for them have not yet succeeded

“We are Amaya”. Advocacy for Academic Freedom - Reports

A detailed description of the activities carried out during the 2019 edition of the Seminar Series on Advocacy for Academic Freedom, held for three months at the University of Trento, Department of Sociology and Social Research, in collaboration with Scholars At Risk (SAR). The seminar was a first national experiment for Italy

Albania, the controversial media law - Legal Resources

Concerns persist over the approval of the new package of amendments aimed at modifying two important laws on the Albanian media, the so-called "anti-defamation package"

Researching media freedoms in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2019 - Surveys

A survey on media freedom from the perspective of citizens: their trust or mistrust in media and journalists, their level of satisfaction and their beliefs about freedom of expression. Analysing the answers to 506 phone calls, the survey gives an overview of the trends in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Online Abuse Now Commonplace for Balkan Women Reporters - Reports

Reflecting the global trend, female journalists in the Balkans are more often attacked online than their male colleagues: an investigation with dozens of interviews and comments and an open platform to collect stories of attacks, harassment and threats, reports of a worrying picture where women are also left alone facing intimidation and its psychological impact