Romania’s first anti-SLAPP legal training: lawyers, experts and NGOs join forces to support journalists and human rights defenders
The Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) organized on 16 February, the first anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuits against public participation) training in Romania. 25 lawyers and legal specialists from all around the country took part in this four and a half hour online training. They joined forces with CIJ to identify the best ways to support journalists and human rights defenders.
The training was held by Diana Olivia Hatneanu, an experienced lawyer, who has represented NGOs and media outlets in litigation before domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). She is also a member of the expert group against SLAPP advising the European Commission. The training content was specifically designed for lawyers defending journalists and newsrooms in Romania, whether they have SLAPP experience or not.
Diana Olivia Hatneanu presented the legislative framework in Romania, the proposal for an anti-SLAPP EU law, examples of legal actions against public participation in Romania, as well as practical recommendations for lawyers.
The first part of the training focused on two main documents from 2022, an update on the European legislative framework - Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on protecting persons who engage in public participation from manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings, and the Commission Recommendation on protecting journalists and human rights defenders who engage in public participation from manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings.
The trainer detailed the legal basis, the subject matter and scope of the proposed Directive - the definition of SLAPP, the applicable frameworks, the training for legal practitioners and journalists, other media professionals and human rights defenders, and how various awareness-raising actions can be undertaken, what support mechanisms Member States can implement, how data collection, reporting and monitoring can be done.
The second part was dedicated to strategic lawsuits against public participation in Romania, 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 SLAPPs and at the end she showed which are the ECHR criteria to balance Art. 8 and Art.10.
The last part of the training included examples and explanations regarding the use of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Law and other regulations concerning the use of personal data for journalistic, academic, and artistic purposes.
The feedback received for the training was very good and two further training events will take place in March.