Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

A SLAPP is a groundless or exaggerated lawsuit or other form of legal intimidation initiated by state organs, businesses and corporations, and individuals with power and money etc. against weaker parties, including journalists, civil society organisations, human rights defenders and others that transmit messages that are uncomfortable to those with the power and money. The aim of the SLAPP is not to win the case but to use the procedure to intimidate, tire out and consume the financial and psychological resources of those who have spoken out. They aim to achieve a chilling effect and silence those who would speak out similarly.

The number of SLAPPs across Europe is increasing year on year and it is relatively well-known how they are being used to target newspapers and journalists. I would like to highlight how they are being used to target activists, people who regularly are without great resources, if any, at their disposal, for whom a legal threat can be a scary experience. In this country for example, a SLAPP has been used by a conservative anti-abortion campaigner against a person who campaigns for safe zones outside hospitals where abortions are carried out. Activists within one of the most vulnerable and marginalised communities in our society, our transgender community, have been in touch with my office to register with me the sharp increase in the number of SLAPPs being used against activists in their community who make legitimate comment on issues of pressing concern to that community.

As we are debating a justice issue, I want to take a brief moment to raise a serious matter which highlights the need for sentencing guidelines for certain sensitive cases. The case I raise is the disturbing case of the jailing of a Waterford teenager following the death of her newborn baby.

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