A number of MEPs have called on the Commission Vice-President to propose anti-SLAPP legislation by making it easier to dismiss vexatious lawsuits - and setting up a fund to cover the costs of these attempts
Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) is considered to be a way to silence critical journalism.
"The cross-border nature of investigative journalism as well as the tendency to pursue legal action in jurisdictions outside the EU that only have a tenuous connection with the parties justifies and requires an EU response," they said.
"The choice of jurisdiction is intended solely to make mounting a legal defence as painful and financially crippling as possible."
MEPs David Casa (EPP), Ana Gomes (S&D), Monica Macovei (ECR), Maite Pagazaurtundúa (ALDE), Stelios Kouloglou (GUE) and Benedek Jávor (Greens-EFA) said Pilatus Bank’s threats against Maltese journalists in the US were “a perfect illustration of the abusive and contemptible nature of SLAPP practices”,
Reports show that the bank - at the centre of the money laundering revelations exposed by the Panama Papers leak - wished to pursue Maltese journalists in the United States for damages amounting to some $40 million.
"Maltese media houses, faced with the prospect of financial ruin, have complied with Pilatus Bank’s requests, deleting and amending articles in online archives, effectively concealing truth and re-writing history," Mr Casa said.
Recently, media house The Shift was also threatened with legal proceedings in the UK and the US by Henley & Partners, the concessionaires of Malta’s citizenship-for-money scheme.
The practice is not limited to Malta. In the UK, Appleby, the firm associated with the Paradise Papers, is using similar tactics against The Guardian and the BBC.
The MEPs are asking the European Commission to propose an EU Anti-SLAPP Directive that will include:
• The ability for investigative journalists and independent media to request that vexatious lawsuits in the EU be expediently dismissed and claim compensation;
• The establishment of punitive fines on firms pursuing these practices when recourse is made to jurisdictions outside the EU;
• The setting up of a SLAPP fund to support investigative journalists and independent media that choose to resist malicious attempts to silence them and to assist in the recovery of funds due to them;
• The setting-up of an EU register that names and shames firms that pursue these abusive practices.
Meanwhile, the European Legal Affairs Committee approved a report saying it was “perturbed” by the attempts of powerful commercial entities to try and silence journalists from carrying out their work.
MEP Francis Zammit Dimech had put forward the amendment, which calls upon the European Commission to take note of this “trend” and to propose legislation that would curtail the “abusive practice.”
The report was approved and will now be passed on to the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee.
The report also said it was concerned about the professional situation of journalists due to financial uncertainties and because of the fact that they were being increasingly subjected to threats and harassment.