Stopping SLAPPs: UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition’s Website Launch

The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition website is a resource that will serve as a repository for everything related to SLAPPs, including the model UK anti-SLAPP law, case studies of SLAPPs, a resource library, and practical advice for those targeted with SLAPPs.

The website will be launched with an event highlighting the importance of support and solidarity when facing legal harassment

CHAIR

Mark Stephens, Partner, Howard Kennedy and Trustee, Index on Censorship

SPEAKERS

Jessica Ní Mhainín, Policy and Campaigns Manager, Index on Censorship and Co-Chair, UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition

Tasmin Allen, Partner and Head of Media and Information Law, Bindmans

Annelie Östlund, Swedish investigative journalist

BACKGROUND

The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition was established in 2021 to bring together civil society organisations, lawyers, journalists, and human rights defenders with the joint aim of putting a stop to strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs).

SLAPPs are brought by powerful and wealthy entities against public watchdogs in an effort to compel them to withhold or remove critical coverage, even if it is accurate and in the public interest. When SLAPPs successfully drive information out of the public domain, they can make it difficult to hold power to account. SLAPPs threaten not only our freedom of information, but our human rights, our rule of law, and our democracies.

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The Coalition was founded by Jessica Ní Mhainín (Index on Censorship) and Susan Coughtrie (Foreign Policy Centre), who have since been joined by co-chairs Charlie Holt (CliDef), Dalia Nasreddin (English PEN), and Nik Williams (Index on Censorship).

This online event has been organised with support from the Justice for Journalists Foundation. The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition website has been built with support from the Open Society Foundations