Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, and Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), rapporteur on EU protection from strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), hold a press conference on the draft directive on rules to protect journalists, activists, academics, artists and researchers against legal actions aimed at silencing them. The transcription is the result of an automatic process. Please, check against delivery.

Strasbourg

plenary session

press conference

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

freedom of press and media (T)

WÖLKEN, Tiemo (S&D, DE)

president's agenda

Press conference by Roberta METSOLA, EP President, and by Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), rapporteur on EU protection from strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs)

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Thank you very much. Good morning to you all. I will by start a very, let's say, general statement: unfounded and abusive lawsuits, the SLAPPS phenomenon, is an issue that has been particularly close to our heart. The ability for journalists to report freely on any matter that are issues of public interest is not just important, but essential to any democratic society.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, As a lawyer, I understand the importance of having legitimate legal recourse to remedy and damages inflicted upon a person but let me be clear: SLAPPS are anything but legitimate lawsuits. In these cases claimants use their position of power to deter scrutiny. They aim to financially and emotionally drain their targets, forcing journalists to self-censor and providing a chilling effect on the reporting of abuses. Essentially, the one and only goal is to silence.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, This House voted with a very strong majority our position on rules to protect journalists, activists, academics, artists and researchers from legal actions intended to silence them. We also voted on a separate report on the threats to journalists and media around the world. I wish we did not have to do this, but I am proud of this Parliament tenacity, because it is thanks to this House, as you said, that we have a proposal for a SLAPP directive on the table.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, And this is why I am particularly pleased to be here today together with my friend and colleague, dear Tiemo, with whom I have had the pleasure of working with back in 2021 on our own initiative, anti-SLAPP Report. He put a lot of effort to get the Commission to act. He persisted on the grounds that journalists should be free to do their work.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, So this report from yesterday, the vote from yesterday, is for those of you who have felt pursued financially and emotionally drained and sometimes left alone. This is also in memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was targeted with more than 40 pending lawsuits against her when she was cruelly assassinated in October 2017.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, A despicable act that inspired the pan-European anti-SLAPP movement. Let me assure you on the European Parliament's and my own continued support on this issue. Thank you TIMON, thanks to everyone involved in making the Daphne Law happen, the shadow rapporteurs and all the administrators and advisors. I wish you good luck for your first trialogue today.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Rapporteur, First of all, also from my side, a warm welcome. Thanks for being here today. Thank you very much to our president, to Roberta for your kind words. And indeed, I am very happy that we adopted yesterday this law with 498 votes in favour. This is a strong signal from the European Parliament towards the Council, that need to get this problem right.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Rapporteur, We are experiencing a growing number of SLAPP lawsuits against journalists, human rights defenders and activists throughout the European Union. For me, it's important to underline that we are not addressing particular Member States, but we are realising that this is a problem everywhere in the European Union. So we have to act very fiercely together. And, as the President already said, we started our journey working on that back in 2021, and it's good that we finally adopt the Parliament's position.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Rapporteur, The focus of our proposal is indeed to ensure that those engaging in public participation are better protected, and I think we indeed have very strong elements to increase the protection. First, we have securities, we have fast tracked procedures for compensation of harm. We included in early dismissal in unfounded cases and a reverse burden of proof. And we are calling for union and national public registries to show the dimension of the problem.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Rapporteur, So, being a lawyer myself, I didn't know about SLAPPs during my studies. It was only in my position as MEP that I learned about this problem and I think this is part of the problem that lawyers practitioners are not aware of this problem. So what we are also asking for is for the creation of one stop shops in Member States so that victims of SLAPPS can turn to a single point where they get support, information and also financial support. But in addition to that, we need awareness raising and training for protect practitioners.

SOUNDBITE (German), Tiemo WÖLKEN (S&D, DE), Rapporteur, So let me come to an end: we want to stop unlawful lawsuits against journalists, activists and human rights defenders because they are a misuse of our judicial systems. These SLAPP lawsuits are not done to win the case. They are started to silence journalists and this is a threat to democracy. And this is why we as the European Parliament we are starting with trialogues today, because we are aware of the urgency and we want to make it happen during this mandate. So I hope that we can finish negotiations later, very quickly. Thank you very much.

Q&A, focusing on how the local offices providing assistance to journalists will be run, specifically if those offices will be coordinate at either national or European level.

Q&A, on the particular legislative situation that Northern Ireland is facing in the aftermath of Brexit, and on how this new anti-SLAPP legislation might apply.

Q&A, focusing on the exact numbers concernig SLAPP lawsuits across Europe.

Q&A, on how the new anti-SLAPP legislation will be perceived and applied specifically to the Hungarian case.

Q&A, concerning the guidilens and judicial training that will be implemented to help lawmakers, jugdes and lawyers to better recognize and address SLAPP cases.

Q&A, focusing on how the legislation will apply to cases that cross national and EU borders.

Q&A, on the Parliament and Council expctations for the trialogue negotiations.