Join the Foreign Policy Centre, English PEN and Amnesty International UK for a conversation with Caroline Kean, Nina Cresswell, Peter Apps, and Simon Dowson-Collins, chaired by Mary Fitzgerald. The event will take place in person and online, followed by audience questions and a drinks reception.
SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) are a powerful weapon against freedom of expression. These types of abusive lawsuits – or the threat of them – are used by a private party with the purpose of silencing critical speech, in an effort to evade scrutiny of an issue in the public interest.
It’s not just journalists who are at risk; anybody, including those publicly reporting cases of sexual assault and harassment or speaking out about dangerous housing or documenting environmental issues, could find themselves subject to a SLAPP in an attempt to silence them.
The UK has been identified as a particularly favourable jurisdiction for SLAPPs, given the incredibly high costs involved as well as the length of the legal process, which can take years before reaching a trial. This exerts a level of pressure upon those subject to legal threats to fold, withdraw the material under claim and settle, even if they want to defend their case.
Whilst a recent Government-led amendment, if brought into law, would make it harder to silence those exposing economic crime is a huge step forward (as it would be the first anti-SLAPP measure in the UK), we know that more work is needed to provide universal protections against SLAPPs.
The organisation of this event has been made possible through ongoing support from the Justice for Journalists Foundation, and sponsorship from the law firm Wiggin.