On 11 September 2024, a spoof legal letter from fictitious law firm, Silver, Langston and Percival Partners was sent to every sitting MP in the House of Commons. The letter, claiming to be acting on behalf of an anonymous claimant, calls on MPs to “publicly retract [their] statements and apologise”, or face court proceedings. While it is a spoof letter, it includes language taken from real legal letters that have been sent to public watchdogs in the UK.
The letter was organised by the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition, a coalition of civil society organisations seeking to put an end to the legal harassment of those speaking out in the public interest. The aim of the letter is to demonstrate to MPs how public watchdogs are being unduly targeted by legal threats and to demonstrate how aggressive those letters are. Legal threats are seldom seen in public as the target is often intimidated into silence.
Without meaningful protections against SLAPPs, those with power and money can continue to abuse the law to silence those speaking out in the public interest. The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition has documented SLAPP threats targeting a wide range of people including journalists, sexual violence survivors, local community groups and campaigners, and environmental defenders. With the previous SLAPP Bill dead after the announcement of the General Election and no commitment for an Anti-SLAPP law in the recent King’s Speech, there is currently no legislative timetable for picking up where the last government left off. This is despite the issue enjoying strong cross-party support.
Rachel Blake MP (Labour) said:
“SLAPPs are harmful to our democracy. They enable those who can afford it to pursue legal action to silence critical speech and avoid scrutiny, and I would welcome action to prevent their use.”
Jamie Stone MP (Liberal Democrat) said:
“SLAPPs should not be used to suppress freedom of speech and silence criticism. Cracking down on investigative journalism threatens our democracy. We should not risk curtailing the freedoms of our press and our society. A new law is needed to ensure that the importance of journalism and free press in the UK is fairly upheld and protected.”
Nik Williams, Policy and Campaigns Officer at Index on Censorship & Co-chair of the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition, who coordinated this campaign initiative, said:
“Receiving a threatening legal letter can be a daunting and terrifying experience. We have spoken to many SLAPP targets who have described the turmoil, stress and emotional distress, as well as the financial implications, that this brings. Without a universal and accessible anti-SLAPP Law, everyone who speaks out in the public interest will remain vulnerable to the type of threat sent to every MP. The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition renews our call for the UK Government to move fast to protect free speech and british courts from the type of abuse that stifles all speech, whether that is a journalist reporting on an oligarch, a sexual abuse survivor naming their attacker, or a local campaigner standing up for their community.”
For press enquiries, please contact: Jessica Ní Mhainín, head of policy and campaigns at Index on Censorship & Co-chair of the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition: [email protected]
Notes:
● The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition website
● Photo credit: Tania Naiden
● The legal letter was emailed to every MP on Wednesday 11 September. A printed version of the letter was also posted to a small number of MPs. You can see the letter below.
● The Model Anti-SLAPP Law prepared by the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition.
Background:
The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition is an informal working group established inJanuary 2021, co-chaired by the Foreign Policy Centre, Index on Censorship and CliDef. It comprises a number of freedom of expression, whistleblowing, anti-corruption and transparency organisations, as well as media lawyers, researchers and academics who are researching, monitoring and highlighting cases of legal intimidation and SLAPPs, as well as seeking to develop remedies for mitigation and redress.
