Extra dates added due to popular demand! Anti-SLAPP training continues in Romania this Spring

Romania’s Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) organized a first face-to-face anti-SLAPP training for legal professionals on 21 March. 15 lawyers from the Bucharest Bar Association attended the event. This is the first of the two additional trainings organized this month, to meet the demand indicated by enormous interest expressed in Romania’s initial PATFox workshop held in February.

This workshop, like the first, was conducted by Diana Hatneanu, chosen for her experience in SLAPP cases and because she is a member of the expert group against SLAPP advising the European Commission. The four hour training was divided into two sessions, one focusing on the Proposal for a Directive and Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council from 2022. Next the trainer presented the legal context in Romania and examples of actions against public participation in the country.

In the first session of the training, Cristina Lupu, Executive Director of the CIJ, expressed the need for well-trained legal specialists, prepared to efficiently defend the press and other advocators of the freedom of expression when they are faced with fabricated lawsuits meant to silence them.

This part of the training focused on the proposal for a 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 discussion continued with 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.

In the last parts of the meeting, the trainer focused on the legal actions against public participation in Romania, the invocation of violation of non-patrimonial rights and relevant defenses. She 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 discussion continued with article 7 of the law 190/2018 on measures implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the processing of personal data for journalistic academic, artistic or literary purposes, together with other GDPR articles.

This face-to-face training will be followed by an online training on 22 March with lawyers from other cities in Romania.