Poland And Malta Ranked Worst In EU For Legal Harassment Of Journalists
Poland and Malta have been cited as the most problematic countries in Europe for journalists facing legal harassment in a worrying assessment of press freedom. Concerns about dangers to democracy in these places have been raised in response to this report by the Case group of NGOs.
The recent study released by Case , on behalf of the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, on Wednesday labels Poland as the EU’s ‘Slapp’ epicenter. ‘Slapp’ stands for “strategic lawsuits against public participation”. Over the past decade, Poland has seen a staggering 128 court cases, a majority of which occurred under the eight-year reign of the Law and Justice party, a nationalist-populist entity.
With 88 cases, Malta ranks second, followed closely by France (76), Croatia (54), Slovenia (42), Italy (32), and Ireland (31). Even more strikingly, when considering the number of cases relative to population size, Malta leads significantly with 19.9 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
However, these figures are likely just the tip of the iceberg. Beyond court proceedings, wealthy individuals and entities have been suppressing media voices through “aggressive legal threats”, causing self-censorship and retractions. Highlighting this, Croatia had 245 cases initiated against journalists in 2022, though it’s unclear if all fit the Slapp criteria set by Case.
Currently, the EU is in the process of drafting an anti-Slapp law, aiming to empower judges to dismiss evidently abusive cases and penalize perpetrators. The specifics of this law are in takes involving the European Commission, MEPs, and EU diplomats.
A breakdown of the study’s data shows that most of these cases are initiated by politicians, state entities, and businessmen, amounting to 340 and 335 cases respectively out of the 820 surveyed. The majority of the victims were those in the media profession, including journalists, editors, and media outlets. However, NGO activists, academics, and even cartoonists weren’t spared either.
Alleged defamation was the most common case, featuring in 590 cases, followed by supposed privacy breaches. At the core of these complaints was the issue of alleged corruption, cited in 181 cases.
Beyond the emotional and financial toll, media entities had to allocate additional resources to craft their defences. Lawyers in regions like Brussels also levied steep hourly charges, further straining media budgets.
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