Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE) rapporteur, holds a press conference on new EU rules ensuring protection for journalists and media outlets from strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs). Plenary greenlights new EU rules to protect journalists and activists working on fundamental rights, allegations of corruption and disinformation from abusive lawsuits aimed at silencing them. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

Strasbourg

press conference

freedom of press and media (T)

WÖLKEN, Tiemo (S&D, DE)

Press conference by Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE) rapporteur on New EU rules ensuring protection for journalists and media outlets from strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs)

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/75029258/1708934294125_I253350Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo W&Ouml;LKEN (S&amp;D, DE), Thank you very much. So welcome to this press press conference. And I am indeed very happy to talk once again about the Anti SLAPP directive. We've votes today with 546 vote in favour, 47 minus and 31 abstentions. So I think it is we can really say that this law is broadly supported and that the Anti SLAPP Directive will soon be reality and will offer more protection to journalists, to NGOs, to human rights defenders, and all to all people using the freedom of press. And I'm really happy that we did this today.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), So some referred to this law also as the Daphne's Law, and I think it's important to mention it here as we are standing in the press room, which is named after Daphne. So it is it is really a great moment. And I think that we achieved, indeed, an additional layer of protection for journalists. What did we finally achieve and the aproved today?

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), 'So, currently there is no definition of SLAPP cases in Europe. We now have one and this is, I think, really important to have the courts to understand the case is better and also to understand the lawyers defeating and helping SLAPP victims. We also have, and this is very important, the definition of cross-border SLAPP cases. This was a crucial point because the definition will impact directly how many people fall under the scope of this new instrument, and therefore how many defendants can resort to the safeguards of this directive. And this definition will provide legal certainty and reflect the nature of SLAPPs, it will allow the national judges to assess the elements of a particular case in a flexible and comprehensive manner. And this will include also the means and the access of the dissemination of an act of public participation, such as electronically means.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), 'And this was a very long and tough fight against the Council, but with the inclusion of the electronic means. We also protect press work statements which are shared online. And this is what I consider a very important and very helpful point. So besides the definition of cross-border cases, we achieved an obligation for an accelerated treatment of two safeguards.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), The first one is the early dismissal in cases of manifestly unfounded cases and the provision of financial security by the judge. We added both elements so this really helps victims of SLAPPs to get rid of a SLAPP case way faster than before. And in the end they can also ask for the reimbursement of their costs, which also is very important. We secured flanking measures regarding assistance, information, transparency and data collection, and we also introduced a strong article on penalties. So if there are abusive cases, they can also be penalties against the ones who use a SLAPP case.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), And then we have a set of measures to protect SLAPP defendants from judgements linked to SLAPP cases coming from third countries. So not from within Europe but from outside Europe. And I really think that this is important. We heard today the Commission also referring to the applicable international private law, and they promise that they keep on working on that. And this was also thanks to the European Parliament that we pushed the Council and the Commission to accept this declaration.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Yes, it's only a declaration, but the the way the Commission today phrased it was, I think, very promising that we will soon see a new approach to also address the private international law. So there will be even more improvements to come. But for today, I am happy that we did this. We voted so, so overwhelmingly in favour of this directive. And this really is, I think, a historic and very important step to protect journalists, human rights defenders, and all others using the rights, the freedom of expression in Europe better than before. So I think it's a good day for the protection of journalists and their important work for our democracy in Europe.

Q&A Question regarding the Member States' implementation of the new law.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), 'Yes, we will, obviously. So I am proud of the text we achieved. It was at a very intense and tough negotiation in the end with the Spanish presidency. But there is, for example, we also received a lot of assurances from many Member States that they will not only cover SLAPP cases with cross-border nature. This is what we can rule on because we always need a cross-border nature to be active on the European level. But many Member States already promise that they will also extend the scope on purely national cases. So I honestly believe that this is only a common minimum standard and that in many Member States there will be additional protection for purely national SLAPP cases.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), But yes, it's true. If there is a Member State which really does not like and does not want to transpose the Anti SLAPP directive for national cases, there's no way we can force them. But I'm really happy that so many Member States already indicated that they will use this law as a momentum to also extend it to purely national cases.

Q&A Question regarding the statistics of SLAPP cases in and out of Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), So, regarding the data, unfortunately, we still don't know the real numbers of SLAPP cases, as there was no common definition. So they are counted in different ways. We now have the definition and the Commission will, of course, follow up and we have a review clause in place where they indeed look into the application of this new regulation with the Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), 'As I said earlier, we will also closely monitor the implementation of the regulation because it's out of the directive so much the directive because it's very important to our heart. So we don't have the accurate numbers. But yes, it is, I tend to say, that there are more domestic cases than cross-border cases but this is hard to tell without knowing the exact specific case and without knowing, for example, if there was communication by electronic means, for example, which we introduced. So the provisions about data collection and data gathering to fully understand the extent to which SLAPP cases are used is very important. And we will definitely follow up on this to understand this better.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), 'So we do have also the one representative from the case coalition in the room. Maybe you can discuss later also a few cases and you can share some insights regarding how many cross-border cases we have and how many purely domestic cases. Then, yes, if a Member of the European Parliament or another politician is suing you without any reason, just to silence you or one of your colleagues, he will also be, of course, under the scope of the Anti SLAPP directive. This directive was designed to protect human rights defenders, journalists, and all others in the personal scope of this directive to prevent the misuse of power by powerful individuals, politicians, by wealthy companies who can afford to to sue journalists to prevent scrutiny. So, yes, this case without knowing specifics but in general, also politicians are, of course, in the scope of this regulation directive.

SOUNDBITE (English), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Thanks for attending and I hope if you ever encounter such an abuse lawsuits, this directive in the end will help you. And of course, our channels remain open for all cases you might know and you want to bring to our attention. So even after we finished the trialogue and between the finishing of the trialogue and the adoption today there were journalists, NGOs contacting us and highlighting us different and new cases. So we know that this is the real problem. We want to solve it. We want to stop SLAPPs. We know this is only the first step. So just to to assure you, reassure you that we will not forget about these cases, but we will fight and try to support journalists as strongly as possible also in the future. Thank you very much for your interest in this press conference.