MEPs debate on their position on rules to protect journalists, activists, academics, artists and researchers against legal actions aimed at silencing them. The draft directive provides minimum standards of protection from lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP) in the EU through early dismissal of these cases, obliging the claimant to cover the costs of proceedings and not recognising third country judgements. The rules should apply in cross-border cases when the claimant and defendant are not based in the same country as the court or when the case is relevant to more than one member state and the disputed work can be accessed electronically. MEPs are also set to call on member states to ensure that SLAPP victims get legal, financial and psychological assistance. Extracts from the debate (10/07) and from the vote, statement by Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Rapporteur.

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

vote

JOUROVÁ, Věra (EC)

freedom of press and media (T)

WÖLKEN, Tiemo (S&D, DE)

ADAMOWICZ, Magdalena (EPP, PL)

GARCÍA DEL BLANCO, Ibán (S&D, ES)

RIBA I GINER, Diana (Greens/EFA, ES)

CICUREL, Ilana (Renew, FR)

Delivery EE2024 (T)

Protecting journalists and activists against abusive lawsuits: extracts from the debate (10/07) and from the vote, statement by Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Rapporteur

Protecting journalists and activists against abusive lawsuits: extracts from the debate (10/07) and from the vote, statement by Tiemo W&Ouml;LKEN (S&amp;D, DE), Rapporteur (EbS)

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, Journalists or rights defenders are still being targeted for doing their jobs. And this is not acceptable. More than that, I feel I see the justice system is abused. And as somebody who coordinates also justice policy in the EU, I have to repeat this is unacceptable.

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, While it is mainly the of Member States to ensure that these key actors for democracy can do their work without constraints, we also have a duty to support the ecosystem at EU level.

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Magdalena ADAMOWICZ (EPP, PL), Our objectives are clear. We want to have strong legal protection measures for victims and we have penalties. We want penalties for those who initiate slaps because our overarching objective is for victims to have adequate support and the perpetrators to feel that the penalties will come.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Ib&aacute;n GARC&Iacute;A DEL BLANCO (S&amp;D, ES), It's essential that public authorities, institutions put in place measures to be able to deal with those people who abuse their positions of power and that abuse measures to silence public opinion. This anti SLAPPs legislation states that if there are abusive lawsuits with financial penalties that are impossible for activists, journalists, human rights defenders.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ilana CICUREL (Renew, FR), We have three calls. The directive should cover the civil cases and it should apply to the civil side of the penal sanctions if it doesn't apply to cross-border cases. It would not be including the people of public interest, and it wouldn't cover as many Europeans. So that is essential. The Directive must offer the slap victims provision borne by the slapper so that they can then provide for their own defence.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Diana RIBA I GINER (Greens/EFA, ES), This legislation is not as ambitious as my group would have hoped. However, we do hope it will be adopted tomorrow as it represents an important step when it comes fighting our democratic fundamental values. And we have to avoid the contents of the legislation being watered down in trialogues. Freedom, expression and the right to speak are not privileges. These are fundamental cornerstones of an open and living society.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo W&Ouml;LKEN (S&amp;D, DE), Rapporteur, The main goal is to protect human rights defenders, journalists and NGOs better. So we are seeing more and more cases, very powerful individuals. Rich people are politicians. Companies are suing journalists, NGOs, human rights defenders over statements they made publicly. And their aim is not to win the lawsuit. Their aim is purely to stop the reports by the journalists, for example. So it's not about winning a case. It's just about silencing journalists, NGOs and human rights defenders. And we want to stop it with this legislation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo W&Ouml;LKEN (S&amp;D, DE), Rapporteur, We are asking for many elements to improve the situations for victims of slaps. For example, we want to give them the right for damages caused by this unlawful lawsuits, by powerful individuals. We want to make it easier for them to get rid of unlawful claims against them by reversing the burden of proof and by giving them the right for an early dismissal. And all our measures aim really at helping people to defend their rights.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo W&Ouml;LKEN (S&amp;D, DE), Rapporteur, As the Parliament, we want to have the most extended scope possible. We want to cover cross-border cases. So if a journalist writes about something which happens, for example, in Belgium, the journalist is from Germany, but this topic is of interest for more than one European member state and is published online, we want this case to be covered by the SLAPPs Directive. The member states don't want it: they want to limit the cross-border element very much. This would narrow down the scope of the legislation and we want to extend it. We want to cover as many cases as possible.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo W&Ouml;LKEN (S&amp;D, DE), Rapporteur, Next to the legal assistance we want to provide for the victims of SLAPP lawsuits. We are aiming to create a network to support them. So we are calling for the member States to establish one stop shops where they can go to where psychologists, where legal professionals are there who know SLAPP cases and offer support.

Vote on Protection of journalists and human rights defenders from manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings - Report by Tiemo W&Ouml;LKEN (S&amp;D, DE) (4 shots)

Final vote: 498 in favour, 33 against, 105 abstention; Applause (3 shots)