Council of Europe: SLAPPs symptomatic of democratic backsliding in Europe

Last week, the Fourth Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe (also known as the Council of Europe Summit) took place in Reykjavik, with the aim of reinforcing the Council’s key mission of safeguarding and promoting human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

This is the fourth summit of the Council of Europe since its creation in 1949 and, therefore, an opportunity for civil society and member countries to address the important human rights challenges highlighted by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić, in the Annual Report on the state of democracy, human rights and the rule of law 2023.

Based on the findings of different Council of Europe bodies, including the European Court of Human Rights, the Secretary General’s report assesses strengths and weaknesses in areas including political institutions and judicial independence, freedom of expression and association, human dignity, anti-discrimination and democratic participation.

The report identifies strategic lawsuits against public participation as an example of the current democratic backsliding in Europe.

In particular, the upward trend in the number of SLAPP lawsuits, also highlighted in the Annual Report by the partner organisations to the Council of Europe Platform to Promote the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists (2022), is considered a noticeable manifestation of the weaknesses the legal framework for the protection of freedom of expression in many countries.

The Secretary General, therefore, calls on countries to review their legal frameworks and redouble their efforts to implement the Court’s judgments in a timely manner.

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights raised the alarm about SLAPPs already in 2020 followed by an alert by the Secretary General in 2021. In addition, in 2022, the European Court of Human Rights referred to SLAPPs in its judgment in the case of OOO Memo v. Russia, holding that a defamation case brought by a public authority against journalists pursued no legitimate aim. Moreover, in 2022 the Committee of Ministers set up the Committee of Experts on Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation, composed of member states’ representatives and independent experts, to work on a recommendation which will be finalised by the end of 2023.

The annual report serves as a warning of the dangers of democratic backsliding, but also the need for collective action to defend democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

Not surprisingly, the Secretary General also underlines the increasing demand of judges, prosecutors and lawyers for training, especially on ethics. In fact, only knowledgeable and skilled justice professionals can play a fundamental role in strengthening the rule of law by applying European standards at home.

PATFox pioneeringly detected this demand: by developing Europe’s first anti-SLAPP curriculum and training European lawyers on how to strategically counteract these abusive lawsuits, our project represents one of the collective action needed to tackle democratic backsliding in Europe.

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Anti-SLAPP seminar conducted in Nicosia

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Where are the limits to freedom of expression? Second workshop on SLAPPs held for Croatian lawyers and activists