Allianz Takes Action Against Abusive Lawsuits
Published: Thursday, Sep 14th 2023, 06:40
Aktualisiert am: Freitag, 13. Oktober 2023, 14:12
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The Swiss Alliance Against SLAPP is a new coalition of non-governmental organisations and media professionals that is mobilising against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP). These lawsuits are often used by corporations to suppress reports of human rights violations or environmental damage. Smaller non-governmental organisations and journalists are often unable to afford the costly and time-consuming legal processes that these lawsuits require. This suppresses the public's right to know about such issues. A survey conducted by the Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church's aid organisation (HEKS) showed that between 2002 and 2010 there were only two SLAPP threats, but since 2010 there have been 17 such attempts to intimidate. Since 2018, around a dozen lawsuits have been filed, with several more expected in 2023. Media organisations have also reported that their members have had to defend themselves against several costly but contentless lawsuits in recent years. The Alliance is calling on the Swiss government to take action against these practices, which threaten democracy by suppressing facts-based civil society criticism. As an example, they cite the case of Malaysian politician's daughter Jamilah Taib Murray, who is suing the Bruno Manser Fund for 249 reports accusing her family of illegal deforestation in Malaysia. The Alliance is made up of organisations such as Public Eye, HEKS, Helvetas, Terre des hommes, Greenpeace, the Society for Threatened Peoples, and the Swiss Media Association. In May, the Swiss Parliament lowered the threshold for superprovisional orders against media reports, allowing complainants to temporarily stop a report if they can prove a disadvantage, rather than a particularly serious disadvantage as before.nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
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