Media Coalition Calls On UK Government To Back Anti-SLAPP Protections To Defend Media Freedom

A model anti-SLAPP law, drafted in consultation with leading media lawyers and industry experts on behalf of the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition and supported by over 70 leading editors, lawyers, publishers, journalists and press freedom organisations including the News Media Association, has been sent to Justice Secretary Dominic Raab. The model law outlines how best the UK government can make good on its commitment made in July to reform the law to introduce robust anti-SLAPP measures and protect those holding the powerful to account. 

Signatories to the letter calling on the UK government to put forward legislation in line with the model UK Anti-SLAPP Law include senior editors from leading UK newspapers and media outlets including Paul Dacre, editor-in-chief of dmg media; Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief of The Guardian; Alison Phillips, editor of The Mirror; Ted Verity, editor of The Daily Mail; Chris Evans, editor of The Telegraph; Tony Gallagher, editor of The Times; Emma Tucker, editor of The Sunday Times; Victoria Newton, editor-in-chief of The Sun; Roula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times; John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News and Alessandra Galloni, editor-in-chief of Reuters News Agency.

Other signatories include prominent journalists, publishers, lawyers and experts, such as Paul and Matthew Caruana Galizia; Joanna Prior, chief executive of Macmillan Publishers International Limited; Mark Stephens CBE, Partner at Howard Kennedy LLP; Arabella Pike, publishing director, HarperCollins Publishers; and Catherine Belton, journalist and author of the book Putin’s People, and NMA director of legal Sayra Tekin. 

High-profile cases – such as those targeting Catherine Belton, Tom Burgis, Elliot Higgins, and more recently openDemocracy and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism – are just the most visible manifestation of a much broader problem which has affected newspapers across Fleet Street and the wider UK media industry for many years, the coalition said. The model law addresses this problem by including important amendments to the Ministry of Justice’s framework, such as a robust filter mechanism that empowers courts to swiftly dispose of SLAPPs; penalties that are sufficient to deter the use of SLAPPs and provide full compensation to those targeted; and protective measures for SLAPP victims including cost protections and other important safeguards. 

Katharine Viner said: “The abuse of the UK legal system by powerful individuals and vested interests to intimidate journalists should be a subject of national shame. The British government has taken this issue seriously for the first time in a generation, and this model law provides a clear opportunity for the government to act on its good intentions to pass legislation without delay.” 

Arabella Pike said: “Freedom of the press is a central pillar of a free society. We need more investigative reporting in this country, not less. There is, after all, quite a bit to investigate. The threat of SLAPPs has a chilling effect on UK publishers, editors, newsrooms with many stories that need to be told getting spiked or unnecessarily delayed in the thickets of legal action. We need reform. This is why I am supporting the UK Model Anti-SLAPP Law.”

Caroline Kean, consultant partner, Wiggin said: “SLAPPs are an abuse of the UK legal system. Having defended journalists, broadcasters and publishers from SLAPPs brought by those seeking to escape accountability and scrutiny, we need to make sure the law works for everyone, not just those with the money and power to intimidate those who seek to expose suspected wrongdoing from defending themselves and to force others to refrain from publishing at all. The model law will give the court the power it needs to protect those who work to hold the powerful to account and deter those who seek to bully them into silence.”

Nik Williams, policy and campaigns officer at Index on Censorship and co-chair of the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition said: “SLAPPs threaten democracy by forcing information out of the public domain and threatening journalists, activists, academics and writers into silence. The UK is at the heart of a global movement that enables the public’s right to know to be determined and restricted by the wealthy, powerful and thin-skinned. However, with the model law prepared by the UK anti-SLAPP coalition and supported by leading editors, journalists, lawyers, publishers and writers we can challenge this legacy and instead lead the way in defending free expression.”