The Justice Secretary has said that free speech laws will be toughened to prevent oligarchs from using the courts to silence critics.
Writing for The Telegraph, Alex Chalk said the law will change to give judges new powers to throw out legal claims by oligarchs, wealthy individuals and corporations if they are designed to harass journalists or restrain their right to free speech.
According to The Telegraph:
He also plans to introduce restrictions to cap the costs that journalists or publishers might have to pay in order to prevent them from being financially ruined by legal action from billionaires.
The changes will be introduced through amendments to the economic crime bill currently before Parliament.
They will cover about 70 per cent of SLAPPs relating to investigations into the finances of wealthy individuals or firms.
Ministers pledged to extend the free speech protections to other areas, including sexual conduct, which would protect investigations into bosses who tried to cover up sexual harassment of their employees.
This follows cases such as that of journalist Catherine Belton, who was sued by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich over claims of his close relationship with Vladimir Putin, and a libel claim brought by a Kazakh mining giant over a journalist’s book about “dirty money”, which was thrown out by the High Court.
Mr Chalk said: “With their deep pockets, they use trumped-up legal cases to aggressively hound journalists, academics and activists who dare to expose their shady dealings.
“Masquerading as genuine cases under our world-renowned privacy and defamation laws, SLAPPs bully critics into silence so that claimants can evade scrutiny by targeting those who can’t match their financial firepower – like sharks against minnows.
“Facing endless lawsuits and eye-watering legal costs, journalists and campaigners pull the plug on investigations and stories, too afraid to speak out. It leaves corruption hidden and the British public in the dark.”
Mr Chalk warned the “sinister, chilling effects” of SLAPPs rippled widely to the point where rich individuals and multinational corporations were viewed as “untouchable” by the media and campaigners.
The number of SLAPPs cases has increased from two to 14 in a year, with 538 identified across Europe in the past decade, of which 26 were brought in the UK.
These, however, were the “tip of the iceberg” because authors often backed down and did not publish in the face of legal threats.
“Our courts should be used in the pursuit of justice – not to serve the ends of the crooked and corrupt. As Lord Chancellor and with my responsibility to respect the rule of law, I am determined to put a stop to this brazen abuse of our system,” said Mr Chalk.
