Guidance

SLAPPs Taskforce: Final Terms of Reference

Updated 9 May 2024

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/slapps-taskforce/slapps-taskforce-final-terms-of-reference

Aim:

  • The Taskforce will bring together government, civil society groups, representative bodies for journalists and legal services stakeholders to help coordinate a non-legislative response to Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) which target journalists.
  • The Taskforce will sit within the framework of the National Committee for Safety of Journalists (NCSJ), which helps to ensure journalists are able to carry out their work free from physical threats, attacks and violence within the UK.
  • The Taskforce will complement the incoming measures in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, which will tackle SLAPPs that are linked to economic crime. Role of Taskforce:
  • Coordinate work across key partners involved in tackling SLAPPs.
  • Increase understanding and awareness of SLAPPs’ impact on journalists.
  • Identify, develop and drive forward non-legislative measures to support journalists facing SLAPPs.
  • Work within the established framework of the National Committee for the Safety of Journalists to coordinate activity aligned to the wider safety of journalists’ agenda.

Objectives:

  • The Taskforce will explore ways to increase understanding of the prevalence of SLAPPs actions launched in the UK against journalists and the characteristics of such cases.
  • The Taskforce will consider measures to ensure that judges, legal services professionals and regulators are confident in recognising and handling SLAPPs cases.
  • The Taskforce will explore ways to increase journalists’ confidence in pre-empting and recognising when action taken against them should be treated as a SLAPP and where they can access support.
  • The Taskforce will promote the UK’s position as a world leader in tackling SLAPPs to deter claimants seeking to abuse the UK legal system.

Membership:

  • The Taskforce will be chaired by the Deputy Director of Radio, Advertising and Press (DCMS).
  • The Deputy Director of Civil Justice & Law Policy (MoJ) will sit on the taskforce to provide input on legal policy.
  • Devolved Administration officials will sit on the taskforce.
  • Members will include senior representatives from organisations representing journalists, including existing NCSJ members such as the National Union of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, Index on Censorship, the Society of Editors, and the News Media Association; and senior representatives from the legal services sector, such as the Solicitors Regulatory Authority, the Bar Council, the Bar Standards Board, Legal Services Board, the Media Lawyers Association, and the Law Society.
  • Membership will also include English PEN, the Foreign Policy Centre, and the UK Anti-SLAPP coalition.
  • The Taskforce will convene a sub-group of journalists with experience of facing SLAPPs action to share their insight. The Taskforce may invite in other individual external stakeholders on an ad hoc basis to share their experiences, including legal services firms.

Meetings:

  • Meetings will take place bi-monthly over a fixed, 12-month period.
  • DCMS will provide a secretariat function.
  • Meetings will take place under the Chatham House Rule.
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