Investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered by a car bomb on October 16 2017, near her home in northern Malta. For years she had been reporting on a web of corruption and money laundering on the Mediterranean islands, involving places as far away as Shanghai, London, Baku and Dubai.
One of the many things brought under the spotlight by Caruana Galizia’s assassination was the way that she and other journalists had been endlessly threatened with costly transnational lawsuits by the people they were covering. While she had continued reporting on her blog, many of her peers were either heavily redacting their stories or simply didn’t run them.
When the rich and powerful use frivolous or unfounded claims to thwart those daring to expose corruption, it is known as strategic litigation against public participation (Slapp). They often do this using libel law, though sometimes also deploy other legal areas including negligence, trespass and trademark infringement. Slapp includes both legal threats and actions, as well as generally using legal procedures to suppress activities in which there is a public interest.
