A SLAPP In The Face For Free Speech

We mark Press Freedom Day by celebrating the Anti-Slapp campaign, which is aimed at protecting journalists who want to expose wrongdoing.

A SLAPP is a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation – a legal case brought, usually by the rich and powerful to intimidate those who want to question their behaviour into silence.

Famous examples include the fomerChelsea owner and Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich who took action against Catherine Belton and her publisher Harper Collins over claims made in Belton’s book ‘Putin’s People’: and attempts by lawyers working for the then Chancellor Nadim Zahawi to gag tax lawyer and journalist Dan Neidle who’d been investigating his.finances.

Adrian Goldberg hears from Susan Coughtrie, co chair of the Anti Slapp coalition and  Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana, CEO of the press regulator Impress.

Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg.

Funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times.

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