Not Backing Down: Activists Can Push Back Against SLAPPs
- International Lawyers Project
- Nov 4
- 5 min read
As a child, Korieh Duodu watched his father, a Ghanaian journalist, targeted by the military for his reporting and forced into exile in the UK during the 1980s. That early lesson in the cost of speaking truth to power shaped Duodu’s path to law and continues to fuel his defence of those under threat for raising their voices.
Today, the world is more democratic than it was in his father’s time, but the tactics used to silence criticism or dissent have only grown more sophisticated and widespread. Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) have surged globally in the past decade, with over two thousand cases launched since 2010. These lawsuits, often filed by powerful political or financial actors, are designed not to win on merit but to intimidate, exhaust, and silence critics, by draining their time, money, and morale. While SLAPPs frequently masquerade as defamation or civil liability claims, their real aim is to chill scrutiny and discourage civic engagement, threatening the very foundation of independent journalism and civil society.
As SLAPPs proliferate, civil society and legal experts are mobilising to push back. The International Lawyers Project (ILP) has provided legal defence, counselling and training on SLAPPs since its founding, 20 years ago. This summer, the Global Civil Society Coalition for the Convention against Corruption (UNCAC Coalition), together with ILP launched “SLAPP Back,” a series of regional training workshops designed to arm journalists and activists around the world with practical and legal means of defence. Korieh Duodu, among others, kindly agreed to be one of the lecturers.
Threatening the Independent Voices
In 2012, Ecuador’s then-president Rafael Correa secured a $40 million libel victory against the newspaper El Universo. The journalist at the centre of the case was sentenced to three years in prison though both the fine and sentence were later pardoned. Across the globe, similar tactics have been deployed to silence critical reporting. In the Philippines, renowned journalist Maria Ressa was convicted of “cyberlibel” in 2020 after exposing alleged corruption involving a judge and a businessman. She faces a potential six-year prison term, and her news outlet, Rappler, was ordered to pay thousands in damages. Five years on, Ressa continues to fight her case in the courts.
Europe has not been immune. In Slovenia, investigative journalists at Necenzurirano faced a barrage of defamation lawsuits in the early 2020s after reporting on a campaign finance scandal linked to the prime minister’s party. Although the cases were eventually dismissed, the legal battle drained £60,000, or half the outlet’s annual budget, and forced them to rely on external grants to survive.
SLAPPs have become a global phenomenon. According to research by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, nearly 40% of such lawsuits filed between 2015 and 2021 targeted individuals or organisations in Latin America. A quarter of cases involved Asia, Australia, and the Pacific; a fifth were in Europe and Central Asia; and about one in ten each occurred in North America and Africa.
Fighting Back: Legal Tools and Strategies
The UK’s role as a global centre for lawfare and SLAPPs is widely recognised and feared by journalists around the world. The European Coalition against SLAPPs found that the UK is the number one jurisdiction for cross-border SLAPPs. A survey by the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) in 2020 of investigative journalists from 41 countries found that the UK was the most frequent country of origin for legal threats outside of their home jurisdiction, almost as high as those coming from the EU and US combined. 68% of respondents said their investigations into financial crime and corruption had uncovered a link with UK jurisdictions, so the subjects of their investigations were more likely to use UK laws and professional services to shut down their investigations.
To kick-off ILP and UNCAC Coalition-organized training, Korieh Duodu, alongside David Romain of Egality Law spotlighted the latest legal tools available to civil society. They examined the European Union’s 2024 Directive on protecting persons who engage in public participation from manifestly unfounded claims or abusive court proceedings, and the UK’s 2024 Anti-SLAPP proposal, both of which empower judges to dismiss meritless lawsuits early in the process, potentially saving defendants years of costly litigation.
In the United States, Bruce S. Rosen, a partner at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, one of New Jersey’s leading litigators, described a patchwork of state-level anti-SLAPP protections. He pointed to the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act as a strong model but warned that federal courts often decline to apply these statutes, leaving many defendants exposed.
The Asia-Pacific region faces its own challenges. For this training workshop, media law expert Barbara Swann described how civil society actors in Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia continue to face criminal and civil defamation suits for exposing misconduct. Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is the only Australian state or territory with a formal anti-SLAPP mechanism, but its limited scope and weak enforcement offer little comfort to most defendants there facing costly and time-consuming SLAPP litigation.
Latin America, too, remains vulnerable. For this workshop, James McQueeny, U.S. civil society representative to the UN Department of Global Communications, joined Rosen and Swann in highlighting regional gaps in legal protection. Their advice: respond deliberately to legal threats, avoid escalating risk, and seek out solidarity and support.
You’re not Alone
While legislative reforms are crucial, the speakers emphasised that practical steps matter just as much, especially in countries lacking robust legal protections. Avoiding knee-jerk reactions on social media, and meticulously documenting threats and communications can make a difference.
Building alliances is another essential strategy. Connecting with legal clinics, press freedom organisations, and fellow journalists can provide both moral and practical support. International solidarity, as seen in the case of Maria Ressa in the Philippines (who went on to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her courageous journalism), can amplify pressure on authorities and offer a layer of protection that extends beyond borders.
Above all, experts advise those targeted by SLAPPs to seek advice early, act deliberately, and never face legal threats alone. In the ongoing battle for free expression, preparation and solidarity remain the strongest shields.
The Road Ahead
The global surge in SLAPP suits is a direct threat to free expression, independent journalism, and civil society. While recent legislative efforts in the EU and UK offer hope, much of the world remains without meaningful protection. Only a handful of countries (and some states within federal systems like the US or Canada) have adopted any form of anti-SLAPP legislation so far. Ghana, for example, has yet to enact such laws, and the legal and political environment remains hostile for those who expose misconduct. In 2023, radio reporter Noah Dameh died after facing repeated arrests and a defamation suit for covering alleged abuse of power. He was 49 years old.
ILP will continue to provide comprehensive legal support—including training, assistance in drafting anti-SLAPP legislation, and courtroom representation—to ensure that journalists and civil society can hold those in power accountable without facing threats, intimidation, or harm.
For more information on ILP and how we can help your individual case when facing a SLAPP suit, please contact us at contact@internationallawyersproject.org.
You can support ILP’s work here.
