Jason Azzopardi: ‘Government refuses to pass anti-SLAPP legalisation bill’

Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi has called on the government to take threats against journalists seriously and pass a bill outlawing the use of SLAPP lawsuits against the Maltese press.

Taking to Facebook, Azzopardi said that it had been over two years since he, along with David Agius and Robert Cutajar, presented the private member’s bill.

“The Muscat and Abela governments have refused it,” Azzopardi said, adding that for the 37th time he had gone to Parliament to have the bill renewed. 

Azzopardi said that Tuesday’s revelations that Yorgen Fenech wanted to sue Nationalist MEP David Casa and blogger Manuel Delia for exposing corruption showed that the government must take threats against the media seriously.

A strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) is a lawsuit intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defence until they abandon their criticism or opposition.

The tactic is employed by wealthy organisations that use the threat of expensive lawsuits in foreign courts to force news organisations to cave in to pressure and was recently used by the private bank Pilatus and citizenship experts Henley & Partners.

The proposed law, which was written by Azzopardi, seeks to make any judgement of any court outside Malta, on alleged defamation, handed down against Maltese residents, to be considered “contrary to the public policy or to the internal public law of Malta” when the defendant would not have defended the case on its merits in the foreign court.

READ MORE: Nationalist MPs table anti-SLAPP law to stop bullying of Maltese press