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. Opening statements by Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Rapporteur, Ramona STRUGARIU (Renew, RO), LIBE Committee, and by Věra JOUROVÁ, EC VP in charge of Values and Transparency

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

Human rights (T2)

JOUROVÁ, Věra (EC)

freedom of press and media (T)

WÖLKEN, Tiemo (S&D, DE)

STRUGARIU, Ramona (Renew, RO)

Protection of journalists and human rights defenders from manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings: Opening statements by Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Rapporteur, Ramona STRUGARIU (Renew, RO), LIBE, and by Věra JOUROVÁ, EC VP

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo W&Ouml;LKEN (S&amp;D, DE), Rapporteur, Thank you very much. I must say I hadn't expected to have to speak quite so early, so I came to a bit of a rush. So President, Commissioner, delighted to see you. Ladies and gentlemen, we're talking about a very important subject today.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Rapporteur, We have to talk about the fact that our legal systems are being used and abused to prevent reporting something which we rely on as a community. And we have to recognise the fact that public discourse, public information is increasingly being dominated and gagged by those with power and money.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Rapporteur, And this is something which we have to fight against. This is something we cannot accept in the European Union. Press Freedom, media freedom is one of the preconditions of democracy. And without those able to place checks and balances in the rich and powerful, democracy cannot work.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Rapporteur, So we've seen lots of examples where the rich and powerful are prosecuting journalists, making complaints about NGOs and other organisations. It's become increasingly widespread. And the reason for this isn't to object to specific facts in reporting. The reason for taking such court proceedings is simply to gag the people in question.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Rapporteur, They're not doing this to be proved right or to win their case. What they're doing is to silence journalists and NGOs, and this is something we simply cannot accept here in the European Union. This is why I'm so delighted that the European Union has come forward with a proposal after the European Parliament drafted a very powerful own initiative report, the Commission and I put forward a proposal.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Rapporteur, Hopefully we can cooperate with Member States to ensure that journalists, NGOs, activists can be better protected. This is necessary. So what do we in the Parliament want? We want to ensure that victims of SLAPPS should be able to point this out and this would mean that the procedure would be terminated at an early stage so as to avoid costly and protracted legal proceedings.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Rapporteur, The fact is, the people, the victims of this aren't just affected by the complaint or the case itself. They also face the deep stress and worry of knowing whether they can afford to defend themselves legally. And this means as a ricochet effect that other journalists are also afraid to report on the truth. And that's a danger for our democracy.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), ENVI Committee, We also call for the fact that victims of unfair SLAPPS would be entitled to compensation to make it more expensive for people to pursue these SLAPPS. And we also have to ensure that we help those who are subject to these unfair proceedings by reversing the burden of truth. In other words, it's up to those instigating such proceedings to prove this is not a SLAPP.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), ENVI Committee, And we also have to ensure that we provide help and support for victims of SLAPP. Legal help, psychological support, specialised help. We also want to ensure that we update and reform international law, Brussels one and Rome two.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), ENVI Committee, The fact is, these powerful companies, these rich people who have the luxury of taking legal proceedings are able to choose the country in which they think they have the best chance of succeeding rather than the country which should be relevant. And that's a further problem with the SLAPPS procedures. You might say there aren't many cases, but I would say there are more and more of them.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), ENVI Committee, I read in the media recently that the former editor of a German tabloid newspaper prosecute or took proceedings against a journalist who reported on his private birthday event, although the editor in question was always happy to talk about other people's birthday parties. And this is as the editor of the Financial Times said, this is simply not right.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), ENVI Committee, They're not prosecuting the editor of a major newspaper. They're prosecuting a small journalist who can't defend themselves. And this is cases such as this underline the need for powerful anti-SLAPP legislation. And I do hope that we'll be able to agree and adopt this tomorrow.

SOUNDBITE (Romanian), Ramona STRUGARIU (Renew, RO), LIBE Committee, I would like to begin by thanking all the colleagues who made it possible that today we should have such a brave proposal, which I hope will be adopted by the plenary of the European Parliament. I would like to thank Tiemo and the negotiating team, the negotiating teams and to commissioner Europol, because six years after the death of Daphne Caruana Galizia, our dream is becoming reality and we are making a significant contribution.

SOUNDBITE (Romanian), Ramona STRUGARIU (Renew, RO), LIBE Committee, And let me continue with the current affairs story from. Romania, where two very brave journalists working on two independent media platforms Buletin de București and the Centre for Media Investigations have uncovered one of the most brutal and cruel scoops of the last few years the connection between ministers on one hand and a network of criminals working in old people, asylums where old people are tortured, literally tortured in the Europe of the 21st

SOUNDBITE (Romanian), Ramona STRUGARIU (Renew, RO), LIBE Committee, is made possible This by the complicity of Romanian politicians, these two journalists and a very brave NGO, the Centre for Legal Resources, and due to their contribution today, we have indictments. We have an investigation by the prosecutors and the minister who was targeted in this investigation reacted by suing all the journalists who mentioned her name in connection to this investigation.

SOUNDBITE (Romanian), Ramona STRUGARIU (Renew, RO), LIBE Committee, This is why we need a very brave anti-SLAPP European direction and national legislation to measure, because this is how we can have free press and the free press can defend the public interest. Thank you

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, Mr. President, Honourable Members. Yes, It's true that since we started to work on this legislation, we heard about new and new cases. So, just to react on Mr. Wölken and his comment that there seem to be not many cases.

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, Now we have good data which show that this is a broad issue and dangerous trend, which the legislative reaction. That's why I am glad that we are already in the advanced stage of negotiations of this legislation. And indeed, Ms. Strugariu, I promise this to the family of Daphne Caruana Galizia. That we will legislate against the anti-SLAPP cases.

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, Here we are, we have been seeing that the journalists face a multitude of challenges and also human rights defenders. Our annual rule of law reports regularly identify issues that affect the freedom and pluralism of media in the EU and challenges to civil society, including rights defenders.

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROVÁ, 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 JOUROVÁ, 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. Over the past two years, the Commission has taken a number of initiatives to help improve the health of the media sector and the rights defenders.

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, We have expanded our financial support in the area of media freedom and pluralism within the Creative Europe programme, we adopted aRrecommendation on the Safety of Journalists in September 2021, we proposed the Media Freedom Act in September 2022.

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, We adopted a Report on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights looking at the Role of Civil Society, and we proposed in April 2022 a Package to counter Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation, so-called slops, which is what we are discussing here today. And I am very grateful for having such a discussion.

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, We need to act to counter this phenomenon and prevent it from growing. Our objective is clear to protect journalists and other important civil society actors against abusive court proceedings because they should use their time and resources in order to be the watchdogs needed for the health of our democracies and not to fight abusive court proceedings.

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, To do this, we need a strong system of safeguards and deterrence and we need it sooner rather than later. Time is of the essence. Speaking about time, I am not be on time. Can I have one more minute? Mrs. President. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, I believe that this is objective which is shared by the European Parliament, that we need to fight a growing phenomenon because it reaches levels of seriousness and that they endanger our democratic societies.

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, I would like to thank the Parliament for your efforts and for the swift progress on this important file. In particular, I welcome the fact that many of the adopted amendments in your report show a high level of agreement with our approach, including when it comes to important elements such as having a definition of cross-border cases and compensation for damages.

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, The Parliament suggests several improvements at which we look at positively and introduces two entirely new chapters which we look forward discuss. That said, in our view, it would be preferable to regulate questions of international jurisdiction and applicable law and the two general instruments that deal with these matters are horizontally, and it was already mentioned here, the Brussels one and Rome two regulations.

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, The review process for both instruments is and slap specific considerations are very much part of that review. I would also like to recall that the Commission's anti-SLAPP initiative is a comprehensive package.

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, Our proposed directive provides cross-border civil procedural safeguards against lapse, and in addition, we have also adopted, as you know, a horizontal recommendation which applies to all kinds of SLAPP cases, be these civil, criminal or administrative. It covers cross-border well as domestic cases.

SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, Some elements introduced by the Parliament's report are closely related to topics touched upon in the recommendation. We are open to consideration as to what the best policy mix is in relation to these elements. Thank you very much.