55 Romanian Lawyers Prepared to Defend the Press in SLAPP Cases

Diana Hatneanu, who has conducted PATFox legal training workshops in Romania

15 lawyers from different counties of Romania attended the second additional training organized on demand, this spring, by The Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) from Romania following the increased interest expressed by lawyers after the session held in February. A total of 55 lawyers from all over Romania were trained in the past months to defend the press in SLAPP cases.

The training organized on 22 March was held by Diana Hatneanu, who also conducted the two previous sessions. She was chosen for her experience in SLAPP cases and because she is a member of the expert group against SLAPP advising the European Commission.

The training touched on the same topics as the one held the previous day in a face-to-face format. It was focused on the Proposal for a Directive and Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council from 2022. The legal context in Romania and examples of actions against public participation in the country were next discussed.

The workshop started with a presentation of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of persons involved in public mobilization actions against manifestly unfounded or abusive legal proceedings. The Commission’s Recommendation (EU) 2022/758 of 27 April 2022 on the protection of journalists and human rights defenders involved in public mobilization actions against manifestly unfounded or abusive legal proceedings was further discussed.

Examples of the legal actions against public participation in Romania were discussed in the second part of the meeting, together with the invocation of violation of non-patrimonial rights and relevant defenses. The trainer presented all the special provisions of the Romanian Civil Code that refer to personal freedoms and are related to SLAPP processes and then she showed the ECHR criteria which can balance Art. 8 and Art.10. The workshop’s final part put forth the use of legislation on personal data against public participation in Romania and other legal procedures, together with relevant defenses.