Malta had the highest number of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) cases per 100,000 people from 2010 to 2021, a report by the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) read.
This number emerged from a study of over 500 SLAPP cases. Malta's number stood at 8 per 100,000 people. The country with the second highest was Slovenia, with 1.95.
The objective of a SLAPP lawsuit is not to redress the plaintiff's breached legal rights, but to intimidate and harass the target into silence. SLAPPs do not necessarily have to be filed in the country where a media organisation is situated for example, but could be filed in foreign jurisdictions with high legal costs to scare people into silence.
The CASE report, 'Shutting Out Criticism: How SLAPPs Threaten European Democracy', authored by The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, shows that Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation are increasing across Europe.
"The study of over 500 SLAPP cases from 29 countries found that cases are filed in countries with strong democracies as well as in countries with critical rule of law concerns. In all the countries in this study, SLAPPs abuse existing laws to intimidate and harass those who speak out and actively participate in the civil space - journalists, whistleblowers, activists, advocacy groups, academics, and other public watchdogs. The CASE emphasises that this report is not an exhaustive survey of SLAPP cases around Europe - the actual extent of the problem can only be worse than what has been documented already. What is presented in the report is a general overview of SLAPPs in Europe and the common trends and patterns identifiable in the documented cases," a statement accompanying the report reads.
The data collected covers 29 countries. These are Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Ukraine.
Daphne Caruana Galizia was the most frequently targeted individual. "This highlights the urgent need for Malta to implement strong, precise, and effective anti-SLAPP legislation," it reads.
"The perils of SLAPPs came to wide public attention following the assassination of the Maltese investigative journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, in October 2017. At the time of her death, Daphne was facing 47 libel cases, including one that had been filed in the United States (US), and had received multiple threats from the UK law firm Mishcon de Reya on behalf of its client, passport sales firm Henley & Partners. For the past four years, various NGOs around Europe, particularly members of CASE, have been more vociferously advocating for anti-SLAPP legislation throughout the continent."
The document mentions, among other things, that an increasing number of cases around some of the countries studies have recently been brought under privacy and data protection provisions, notably using the relatively new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). "Such claims allow public interest defences generally available in defamation claims to be circumvented, though court practice is yet to be seen."
Some of the other key findings are that SLAPPs are a pan-European phenomenon that needs to be tackled regionally and coherently, addressing both domestic and cross-border cases; The number of SLAPP cases across Europe is increasing year on year, with the highest number recorded in 2021, followed by 2020 and 2019; SLAPPs affect multiple sectors ranging from the environment to education and anti-corruption advocacy; The common factor in all SLAPP cases is the abuse of existing laws to intimidate and harass those who speak out and actively participate in the civic space - journalists, whistleblowers, activists, advocacy groups, academics, and other public watchdogs; What distinguishes a SLAPP is that the plaintiff's aim is to shut down the actions or words of their target.
The report can be found here