The UK Parliament has backed a measure to tackle the use of SLAPPs – Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. This legal tactic has been widely used to intimidate journalists, academics, campaigners and ordinary people who want to expose wrongdoing and corruption.
Action to curtail the use of SLAPPs moved a step nearer on 23 February when Private Member’s Bill proposed by Wayne David (pictured), Labour MP for Caerphilly, won the backing of the government and MPs of all parties at its second reading debate. This follows a limited move by the government against SLAPPs in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act last year which only covered economic crime. The new Bill will extend the protections to cover all types of litigation, including sexual harassment and professional incompetence.
The Bill was passed unopposed and will now face detailed scrutiny before coming back to the House of Commons for a final vote, expected before the summer.
David’s Bill proposes new powers for judges to dismiss bogus SLAPPs cases before they go to trial, so that people are not intimidated, and to protect defendants from paying potentially massive costs. Where excessive costs have been incurred, the Bill proposes a new compensation scheme.
SLAPPs have become a major challenge for the media. They are used to bully journalists and publishers and deter genuine investigative journalism. They are a worldwide phenomenon and are often accompanied by serious threats to the safety of journalists.
The scope and scale of SLAPPs varies enormously but usually feature a barrage of flimsy claims for defamation or breach of privacy from wealthy, powerful individuals seeking to prevent investigation of potential wrongdoing. They have been especially popular among Russian oligarchs but by no means limited to them, as David pointed out.
“Well-heeled, corrupt and malicious elites have been increasingly using SLAPPs to intimidate and threaten journalists, community campaigners, academics or anyone challenging them and speaking out in the public interest. I want people who stand up to the corrupt or expose wrongdoing to know that they have the law on their side.
“Less high-profile, SLAPPs have also been brought against patients who left negative reviews of botched plastic surgery. There have also been SLAPPs by some landlords against their tenants who have spoken out about their uninhabitable housing, and environmentalists have also been attacked for pointing the finger at polluters.”
The Bill won backing from the government with Justice Minister Mike Freer telling the House of Commons: “As we’ve heard, strategic litigation against public participation, or SLAPPs, is an abuse of our courts and of our laws by corrupt individuals seeking to stifle free speech and a free press.
“We cannot sit by and allow our media to feel that some people and organisations cannot be subject to scrutiny, just because they have unlimited financial firepower to mobilise aggressive legal tactics.”
There was also support from the Labour front bench, with shadow justice minister Kevin Brennan endorsing the Bill: “It’s a step forward in an ongoing effort to protect freedom of expression and ensure that those who seek to report on wrongdoing can do so without fear of retribution.”
