Press freedom advocate Flutura Kusari says the growing use of aggressive lawsuits to intimidate and silence journalists demands a tougher response from the European Union.
So-called SLAPPS – Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation – are a growing phenomenon with a clear aim: stopping journalists from carrying out their mission of holding the powerful to account, says Flutura Kusari, a senior legal adviser with the European Centre for Press and Media Freedoms, ECPMF.
SLAPP cases are intimidatory legal efforts intended to silence unwanted media coverage, Kusari told BIRN during last week’s Media Freedom Rapid Response Summit 2025 in Brussels.
“SLAPPs are baseless claims, usually in the form of lawsuits filed against journalists with the sole aim of intimidating them. These are not cases where someone genuinely feels they have been wronged and wants to exercise their legal rights,” she explains.
“They are not winnable in court; the entire purpose is to drag journalists into lengthy proceedings, make them spend money on legal fees, and ultimately keep them away from what they are supposed to do: journalism.”
Source: BalkanInsight
