A “SLAPP” is a strategic lawsuit against public participation. The term refers to abusive legal actions whose point is not to genuinely assert a right, but to drain the resources, damage the reputation and destroy the personal lives of those they target. Businesses, politicians and public figures use their wealth and power to bring to court journalists, activists and rights defenders exposing harmful practices with cases they know they will not win, just to drag costly legal proceedings for years. Their objective is to silence them and scare off others from even trying to investigate and raise awareness on their wrongdoings.

In this episode our host Jonathan Day talks to Matthew Caruana Galizia, the son of the murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia about the abusive lawsuits that made his mother's life "impossible". The new speechbag podcast is also joined by Liberties' advocacy expert Linda Ravo who talks about what the EU could do to defend activists and watchdogs from malicious lawsuits, and about what NGOs and the public are already doing to stop SLAPPs.

Tune in!

Previously on speechbag:

E02: Ethnic Profiling, Discriminatory Policing, Framing

E01: Vax Pass, Anti-Vaxxers & Myth-Busting