European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová has expressed doubt that the numerous lawsuits against media and journalists in Croatia can qualify as strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP).

We will have to refresh our data, which we received last year. This year we will get more information on SLAPP cases. No country is immune to them and there are SLAPP lawsuits in all member-countries. More than 900 cases in Croatia? I will have to check that, Jourová said in an interview with Hina, organised by the European Newsroom, a project in which 18 European news agencies participate.

The EC official was commenting on data published by the Croatian Journalists Association (HND), which last year presented a survey according to which that year there were at least 951 active SLAPP cases against media and journalists, in which claimants sought close to HRK 77.4 million (€10.27 million) for damage caused to their reputation and honour.

The HND warned in a statement issued at the time that the term SLAPP is still not clearly defined in Croatia and the rest of Europe, which is why it is difficult to determine which lawsuits qualify for that category.

If there should be a large number of SLAPP cases in specific member-countries, it will be a signal of attempts to silence and slowly wear down journalists, consuming their time and energy, Jourová said, noting that she was curious as to what the data will show.

SLAPP lawsuits are unfounded and malicious claims launched by powerful social stakeholders with the aim or silencing critical voices on issues of public interest that are contrary to their interests.

However, there are still no clear criteria to distinguish between SLAPP lawsuits and legitimate defamation lawsuits.

The European Commission in April 2022 put forward a draft directive to secure better protection for reporters and human rights activists from abuse of court proceedings.

The proposed directive covers SLAPP lawsuits with cross-border implications and it should enable judges to quickly dismiss claims against journalists and human rights activists that are evidently unfounded.

We do not want the judicial system in Europe to be misused against reporters and freedom of speech, that is why we have proposed anti-SLAPP legislation. This is now under discussion and the process will not be easy but I believe the law could be adopted by the end of the term of the current Commission, Jourová said.

In the interview, organised on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, 3 May, Jourová also spoke about a freedom of media bill put forward by the EC in September 2022. The proposal aims to protect media pluralism and independence, prevent excessive ownership concentration, and secure ownership transparency and stable financing of public media, which must not become propaganda channels.

She said that there were two groups of objections to the bill. The first group came from countries with traditionally strong and independent media which fear that European rules could lead to the restriction of the achieved standards while the other group of objections came from Hungary and Poland, which claim that the field of media is not within the EU’s remit.

We only want to harmonise the minimum standards, not reduce the already high level of protection in some of the member countries, Jourová said.

She also warned about the dissemination of fake news and Russian propaganda targeting Central and Eastern Europe, noting that the propaganda was very strong in the countries of the Visegrád Group and was yielding results, except in Poland, and expressed dissatisfaction with the work of big platforms like Google, Meta and Twitter, which, she said, should invest more in the fight against fake news and in fact-checking.