Journalists and other public-interest speakers need timely legal assistance when court proceedings show reasonable indicators of being manifestly unfounded or abusive.
The SafeJournalists Network – Albania and SCiDEV have submitted a joint contribution to the Ministry of Justice’s consultation on proposed amendments to Law No. 111/2017 “On State-Guaranteed Legal Aid”.
The draft law contains welcome measures to make legal aid more accessible and effective. It simplifies applications for primary legal aid, expands the categories of beneficiaries, strengthens specialised representation and creates accelerated procedures for certain urgent cases.
However, the draft does not yet address the barriers faced by journalists, media workers and other people targeted by potentially abusive proceedings because of their participation in public debate. The cost and duration of repeated or complex litigation may undermine the ability to defend public-interest reporting even where a journalist does not meet the ordinary income threshold for free legal aid.
SafeJournalists is not seeking automatic legal aid for every journalist or suggesting that every defamation claim is a SLAPP. Individuals who have genuinely been harmed by inaccurate or unlawful reporting must retain access to effective and proportionate civil remedies.
The joint contribution instead proposes a functional safeguard. State-guaranteed legal aid should be available to natural persons, expressly including journalists and media workers, where proceedings have been brought because of public participation on a matter of public interest and the initial facts reveal reasonable indicators that the claim may be manifestly unfounded or the proceedings abusive. The legal-aid decision should not determine whether the publication was lawful or whether the claimant will ultimately succeed.
The same submission recommends correcting the draft’s whistleblower provision so that it corresponds to Albania’s national whistleblower-protection law and covers all protected natural persons and connected proceedings.