On Tuesday February 27, MEPs approved new rules intended to protect journalists and rights defenders from legal proceedings intended to silence them.
The text, adopted by 546 votes to 47, applies to proceedings in civil matters, particularly in cases where the plaintiff, the person accused and the court seized are not in the same country. It aims to protect journalists, activists and academics working on fundamental rights, allegations of corruption and disinformation.
The person subject to such a SLAPP procedure may, for example, request the rapid dismissal of a manifestly abusive appeal. A court may also decide to charge the plaintiff the costs of the proceedings, in particular the lawyer’s fees of the person being prosecuted. He can also sanction the initiator of such an abusive procedure.
“A great day for freedom of expression”
Judging their growth to be worrying, the European Commission proposed this draft directive in April 2022 to combat these abusive procedures, generally brought by figures in positions of power, in the economic or political field, with the aim of preventing revelations.
According to German MEP Tiemo Wölken (S
“Because these attacks endanger our democratic principles, the rule of law and undermine fundamental freedoms such as freedom of expression, freedom of information and the right to assembly, we had to respond and protect the most vulnerable.” , reacted in a press release the French MEPs from the Socialists and Democrats group (S
For Marie Toussaint, French vice-president of the Verts-ALE group, “this directive, although incomplete and imperfect, constitutes a first significant step for the protection of those who want to enlighten the public debate”.
The directive will enter into force twenty days after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. Member States will have two years to apply it.
