📻 FPC ED & co-chair of the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition, Susan Coughtrie (@skcoughtrie.bsky.social), spoke on Times Radio about the growing calls for stronger protections against #SLAPPs
🎧 Listen from minute 38:12 ⬇️
www.thetimes.com/radio/show/2...
💰The secrecy of the proceedings is concerning given the high-profile nature of the underlying scandal. The Tribunal’s decision to prohibit reporting on the case and sit in private, is an extremely worrying development in the ongoing battle to hold lawyers to account for #SLAPPs.
👩⚖️ The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has published a written judgment clearing lawyer Christopher Hutchings of Hamlins LLP of professional misconduct in the second case brought by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in response to complaints about #SLAPPs.
⚠️ This case shows how tricky it may be for other claims to be chucked out as #SLAPPs given “the complexity of the present statutory regime”, its demanding definition of a SLAPP, and its scope being limited to information about economic crime. The Judge felt even this case was not a "paradigm SLAPP”.
🚨A historic breakthrough today for the fight against #SLAPPs as for the first time ever, the High Court has formally branded legal action as a #SLAPP, throwing out a “spectacularly inflated” £8m libel claim against @danneidle.bsky.social who reported on a barrister’s role in a tax avoidance scheme
🔴Now #UKMFF2026 - Countering #SLAPPs: UK Legislation & Press Freedom
Opening presentation by: nikwilliams.bsky.social (indexoncensorship.org)
Chair: Charlie Holt (clidef.bsky.social)
Speakers: mirandaoccrp.bsky.social, joshih.bsky.social, Sirin Kale (The Guardian) & Rupert Cowper-Coles (RPC)
... and the presentation covers a wide range of other observations, incl #transnationalrepression, conditions for journalists forced into exile, #statecapture of media, #SLAPPs, use of #spyware against journalists (with recent conviction of company executives in Greece). Recommended viewing/reading!
1,481 press freedom violations. 2,377 journalists and media entities affected. 36 European countries monitored. The new MFRR report shows that press freedom across Europe remained under serious pressure in 2025.
➡️ Read the full report: ow.ly/2y8r50YkUM0
#pressfreedom #safetyforjournalists #SLAPPs
🚨 Announcing Session 4 of the #UKMFF2026
Countering #SLAPPs: UK Legislation & Press Freedom
🗓️ 5 March | 15:10–16:20
How can the UK strengthen protections against #SLAPPs and defend #MediaFreedom?
mediafreedomforum.co.uk/registration/
Media Freedom mission in #Italy 🇮🇹 @mediafreedomeu.bsky.social
🔸Main topics: public broadcaster's reform #RAI, #EMFA, #SLAPPS, defamation reform, digital threats, the use of surveillance against journalists + media market concentration.
📣Stay tuned!
www.article19.org/resources/it...
⚖️In yesterday’s debate on Russian influence, Joe Powell MP raised concerns about the use of #SLAPPs to intimidate journalists.
FPC’s 2022 report London Calling documented how UK courts have become a hub for legal threats that stifle public interest reporting.
👀 The Defendants have applied for the claim to be thrown out as a #SLAPP, relying on reforms under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, making this the first case we know of to use this new safeguard. Stay tuned as we follow how this targeted power for #SLAPPs fares in the High Court.
⚖️ We’re at court today for the first test of the new #economiccrime #SLAPPs strike out power, as @danneidle.bsky.social asks the judge to throw out an £8m libel claim by Setu Kamal, a tax barrister whose alleged role in a tax avoidance scheme was the subject of a report by Tax Policy Associates.
Δελτίο Τύπου: Live Απειλές Κατά Δημοσιογράφου Από τον Κυβερνητικό Εκπρόσωπο
#ΕλευθερίαΤύπου #Λογοκρισία #ΝέαΔημοκρατία #ΠαύλοςΜαρινάκης #ΧρήστοςΑβραμίδης #SLAPPs
www.pirateparty.gr/2026/02/live...
After a string of failures, what next for the ‘crackdown’ on #SLAPPs? - www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026...
Thanks to serious shortcomings in the EU anti-SLAPP Directive, journalists, activists, public interest NGOs and academics remain at risk of weaponised litigation as the number of SLAPP suits continues to rise in Europe 👇
buff.ly/DYUTULt
#SLAPPs # EU anti-SLAPP Directive
"The UK Govt must now prioritise legislation to stop those with thin skins and thick wallets misusing the courts to stymie reporting and evade scrutiny.” #SLAPPS #pressfreedom
🥊 While today’s ruling is another significant blow to the SRA, and its third loss in early efforts to hold lawyers to account over alleged #SLAPPs, it’s welcome that the legal regulator has filed an appeal in this #OneCoin case.
🥶 There’s no doubt this will have a chilling effect on the SRA’s appetite to tackle #SLAPPs. This is deeply concerning given this is a new and contested area of professional ethics where the regulator’s job is to pursue cases in the public interest – which may not always mean winning them.
💰Today the Solicitors Regulation Authority has been told it’s on the hook for more than half a million pounds in legal costs to Claire Gill, after the regulator’s #SLAPPs case failed against the Carter-Ruck partner who acted for the $4 billion crypto-scam OneCoin.
🥊 While today’s ruling is another significant blow to the SRA, and its third loss in early efforts to hold lawyers to account over alleged #SLAPPs, it’s welcome that the legal regulator has filed an appeal in this #OneCoin case.
🥶 There’s no doubt this will have a chilling effect on the SRA’s appetite to tackle #SLAPPs. This is deeply concerning given this is a new and contested area of professional ethics where the regulator’s job is to pursue cases in the public interest – which may not always mean winning them.
Europaweit gibt es immer mehr juristische Einschüchterungsversuche. Eine aktuelle Studie zeigt das Ausmaß. #SLAPPs mmm.verdi.de/aktuelle-mel...
Over the past five years, journalists, campaigners, survivors, academics and civil society organisations have worked together to expose how, #SLAPPs, abusive legal threats are used to silence public interest speech on a whole range of topics and to push for meaningful reform.
💪 So the work of the Coalition is now more important and more urgent than ever before, to secure comprehensive and effective legislative protections against #SLAPPs and ensure the ethical framework that governs the legal profession is fit for purpose.
⚠️ Yet despite the introduction of some limited legislative safeguards against #SLAPPs and guidance from legal regulators, early efforts by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to tackle #SLAPPs as an issue of professional ethics have so far come up short. bsky.app/profile/spot...
🗣️ It’s been encouraging to see growing awareness about #SLAPPs over the last 5 years as those targeted by abusive legal threats have bravely broken the silence to expose the impact of #SLAPPs - not only on them as individuals but on free speech, openness and accountability in our society.
We will have to wait until May when the King's Speech is expected to see whether the Government has heeded our call.
Let your MP know that this issue is important to you and ask them to call on the Government to put aside parliamentary time for stamping out #SLAPPs
Today 127 editors, lawyers, journalists, writers, publishers, associations and civil society bodies came together to tell Keir Starmer to make time to protect #freespeech and stamp out #SLAPPs.
antislapp.uk/2026/01/28/m...
UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition commemorates 5 years with a letter to the Government
On 28 January 2026, the 5th anniversary of the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition, 127 editors, lawyers, academics, journalists, publishers and civil society representatives co-signed an open letter sent to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, joining the Coalition’s call for anti-SLAPP provisions to be included in the next King’s Speech, expected in May.
While the Prime Minister, and other members of his Cabinet, have spoken out about SLAPPs and the need to address them, no new legislation has been brought forward under the current Government. As the letter outlines, while the inclusion of anti-SLAPP measures in the 2023 Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA) was a welcome and official recognition of the problem, the provisions are both limited in scope and flawed in approach.
Parliamentary time must be given to advance universally applicable, and robust, anti-SLAPP measures to ensure our courts can no longer be abused by those seeking to avoid the sort of scrutiny that sustains democracy.
On the 5th anniversary of the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition, 127 representatives from a wide cross section of society are sending an open letter to the Prime Minister calling for better Anti-SLAPP protections.
#SLAPPs #AntiSLAPPs #openletter #KingsSpeech #freedomofexpression
