Model UK Anti-SLAPP Law published as Parliament debates undue influence

At the conclusion of a busy day in the House of Commons, on Monday 17 October David Davis MP initiated an adjournment debate on Lawfare and Investigative Journalism. The debate followed a previous one on the same issue, also initiated by Davis on Thursday 20 January.

The problem of SLAPPs has come into sharp focus in the UK following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Despite preivous rounds of libel reform, the legal system of England and Wales has long been vulnerable to abuse by wealthy individuals and firms seeking to restrict freedom of expression.

David Davis used the debate to draw attention to threatened lawsuits against OCCRP, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, OpenDemocracy and the Telegraph, who had reported on companies with apparent connections to charitable foundations linked to former Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev. A number of rights organisations, including Blueprint, have signed an open letter about these threats.

Davis used the opportunity of the debate, and parliamentary privilege, to put the publications' allegations on the public record.

In the course of the debate, it became apparent that lawyers connected with the organisations in questions had attempted to stop MPs asking questions in the House of Commons, notwithstanding parliamentary privilege.

This summer the previous British government under Boris Johnson published a consultation response paper, discussing the introduction of a UK Anti-SLAPP law. Responding to the debate, a minister in the current government, Gareth Johnson MP, promised that the SLAPPs issue would be dealt with in legislation but would not commit to a time frame. "The legislation is stil in the process of being drafted," he told MPs.

Coinciding with the debate, a model UK Anti-SLAPP law was published by the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition, endorsed by 21 organisations, including Blueprint for Free Speech.

Read the model law here