The Athens Journalists’ Union (ESIEA or JUADN) on Tuesday expressed its “surprise and concern” over the dispatch of extrajudicial legal notices to numerous online media outlets demanding that the latter “immediately remove within three days” reports and articles focusing on the high-profile and ongoing Energa trial.
The announcement by ESIEA refers to a “SLAPP practice”, the abbreviation for “strategic lawsuits against public participation” – in simple terms “intimidation lawsuits” intended to censor, intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with legal and court costs until they abandon their criticism or opposition.
The legal petitions were sent by a legal firm representing the main defendant in the Energa case.
ESIEA said the outlandish demand includes the “deletion” of political parties’ announcements, comments by involved parties, lawyers and even political cartoons.
“The board of directors of ESIEA expresses its deep concern for these practices, which directly threaten the principles of freedom of the press, and wonders if the authors of these extrajudicial petitions, after their demand for deletion of online articles, will also request the tearing up or burning of newspapers that refer to this criminal case. We call on the government to take a stand, and to institutionally shield the media from similar threats and SLAPP practices in public interest cases,” the announcement adds.
