Ms Jessica N? Mhain?n:

I will speak to that. The Deputy mentioned the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe has a media freedom platform where we file media freedom alerts. In relation to Ireland specifically, there are three active Council of Europe alerts in relation to SLAPPs. I am happy to share my copy with the committee.

One that we filed earlier this year is a case that is being taken against the journalist, Mark Tighe, The Sunday Timesand RTÉ. That case has been pending for nearly four years, since it was filed. This speaks to the case-management issue.

Speaking to SLAPPs specifically, there is a need for cases to be expedited. To come back to the point of retrospectivity when it comes to the legislation, we strongly recommend that the legislation be able to apply to cases that are already in train.

There are two lawsuits in relation to the case to which I referred. One is against RTÉ and Mr. Tighe and the other is against The Sunday Timesand Mr. Tighe. The lawsuit against Mr. Tighe and The Sunday Timesis in relation to a story he published headlined, "Rae 'changed stories' for INM chairman". It refers to Mr. Stephen Rae and was published in August 2018. Subsequently, Mr. Tighe was invited on RTÉ Radio 1 to speak about the article. That is an example of a SLAPP.

The legislation mentions several features of concern and these are some of the features we look at when we are identifying SLAPPs. These are anything aimed at driving up the cost, time and energy associated with defending a case, for example, where a lawsuit is filed against an individual rather than the individual's media outlet. In this case, one indication to us is to ask why the lawsuit was filed against Mark Tighe twice and why was it not only filed against his employer, which, at the time, was The Sunday Times. As regards the time associated with that case, I believe the papers for the case were filed on Mr. Tighe approximately a year after the article was published. These are the types of issues. We look at the time, energy and money associated with defending a cost. The fundamental point to bear in mind as regards SLAPPs is that they are just a form of harassment that use the law as a guise and to give harassment a form of legitimacy.

To briefly come back to the Deputy's point about judges, in terms of case management, which is very important with SLAPPs, more judges would certainly help. Something else which many of our colleagues in the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe have been looking at is training of judges. This will be important in ensuring more people can understand what is a SLAPP and judges can be aware of the symptoms of a SLAPP they need to look out for.

I am happy to circulate some other examples of cases we have come across. I caution that we have a lot of difficulty with coming across SLAPPs because they rarely make it into a courtroom. They are intended to drag out the process as much as possible.