Media Chronicle

Press freedom and whistleblowers: ungag the truth!

Audio 02:39

Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was facing 47 charges at the time of her murder in 2017. AFP/File

By: Amaury de Rochegonde Follow

2 mins

On Wednesday April 27, a draft European directive was presented to the European Commission to fight against abusive prosecutions aimed at silencing journalists and whistleblowers.

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They are called “gag procedures” and they can take all forms of intimidation.

It may be the multiplication of legal attacks as we saw with the Maltese journalist

who had 47 prosecutions at the time of her assassination in 2017.

It can be a complaint for defamation, like the one that targeted

, when they were attacked by Vincent Bolloré for a portrait broadcast in 2016 and awarded the Albert London prize.

It can be attacks for denigration before a commercial court, as this same Vincent Bolloré had done about this report

from France Télévisions.

It can be judicial harassment, as experienced by the Cameroonian journalist Nestor Nga Etoga, who for more than five years has appeared a hundred times before a court in Douala or Mfou after prosecution by the forestry company Fipcam, whose violation he denounced. corruption, according to Reporters Without Borders.

It can even be a counter-offensive for " 

 ", as

, the former presenter of TF1, has just done against sixteen women while six of them have filed a complaint against him. for rape.

118 " 

gag procedures

 " identified in 2021

Very often, and this is particularly the case with Vincent Bolloré, these systematic attacks do not yield much result, at least before European justice.

They result in a release or they are withdrawn.

But the powerful plaintiffs reckon that's enough to intimidate journalists or whistleblowers who might attack their interests.

This is why the European Commission presented on Wednesday 27 April a draft directive to " 

 ", as Commissioner Věra Jourová explains.

There is urgency, because out of 539 cases recorded between 2010 and 2021, 118 took place last year, a record year for this type of procedure.

The directive focuses on cross-border cases, as information affects several countries and some accusers are tempted to shop around to find the jurisdiction that is most favorable to them.

But there is also a recommendation to the states for national affairs.

The idea is to allow early rejection of abusive or unfounded complaints and refusal of judgments rendered outside the European Union.

Sanctions and dissuasive measures are also provided for complainants, as well as compensation for the victims of these gag procedures who often pay dearly, both in legal costs and in the long term, for their stubbornness.

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