EU. Ideas and proposals from Ossigeno to create a shield for democracy in Europe

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Creation of assistance centres in each country based on the model developed in Italy to assist journalists affected by threats, intimidation and SLAPPs

OSSIGENO – May 30, 2025 – The European Commission has launched a consultation on how to design and build an effective instrument for the protection of democracy in the countries of the Union, the European Democracy Shield: a sort of dome, a legislative “Iron Dome” with which to defend its system based on the rule of law that is increasingly threatened by advancing authoritarian drifts.

The project also includes defending the independence of information from any external interference and manipulation, guaranteeing the integrity of electoral processes, and the full implementation of the European Media Freedom Act (which imposes precise rules and checks and balances also on public radio and television information to prevent governments from using it as a tool for political propaganda, as is also the case in Italy). The Shield project also includes better and more extensive protection and support for independent media and journalists, with additional measures to those rather limited measures now provided for by the recent EU ANTI-SLAPPs directive.

Ossigeno per l’Informazione was involved in the discussion started by dozens of other European non-governmental organizations that defend press freedom and journalistic activity, and together with 66 of them signed a document that addresses a series of requests to the EU Commission to make the Shield a useful and effective tool.

In addition to signing the document A New European Shield for Democracy: How to Make it Work? proposed by the European Partnership for Democracy, Ossigeno has sent its own specific contribution to the Commission. The text of the contribution, for which a shorter version was required is reproduced below.

OSSIGENO IDEAS FOR THE EUROPEAN SHIELD

As confirmed by the data on Italy contained in the latest Annual Report of Ossigeno per l’Informazione even in the Western countries of the European Union threats, intimidation and SLAPPs aimed at journalists for intimidation purposes have been widely and systematically used as gags for years and continue to be so. Consequently, the European institutions should introduce, support and encourage new and more effective countermeasures against them, start concrete actions to stem this ever-growing phenomenon and concretely help those who are victims.

What is to be done? Certainly some legislative corrections are needed which in the future will be able to eliminate intimidation and threats. Ossigeno never tires of calling for them and supports all those who fight for this. But future legislative corrections are not the remedy needed now by those who, without any fault, suffer these acts of censorship, these illegal forms of denial of the right to express oneself and to disseminate information of public interest. We must, therefore, ask ourselves: what are we doing to save the shipwrecked, those who now, while we await new laws, fall into the sea due to threats and intimidation and risk drowning, if someone does not run to save them?. What can we do to prevent journalists and human rights defenders from succumbing to unjust attacks launched by individuals who have coercive force and financial resources greater than those of the journalists targeted by their instrumental and specious legal actions?

Ossigeno believes that to achieve the objective of defending these journalists – especially freelancers – we need to help them concretely and quickly, before they suffer serious consequences, before they find themselves in a position where they cannot continue their work.

These journalists – especially the weakest – need to be provided with immediate and concrete support, help to break their isolation and also legal assistance to face the trials in which they are involved.

This new approach is possible if we create the national assistance centres called for by all the recommendations addressed to governments by multilateral organizations for at least a decade. It is possible if we help civil society to create centres equipped with expert and competent operators, with adequate resources, able to increase the scope of the operators’ interventions with the use of qualified voluntary work, as Ossigeno per l’informazione has been doing in Italy for over ten years in a pioneering initiative that has received much appreciation and about which it periodically publishes reports.

Ossigeno’s experience is proven good practice and uses the following main tools:

–  direct monitoring of threats and intimidation 

–  publication of the identified incidents  which occurs only after having certified their veracity in the interest of the victims and in collaboration with them

–  free legal assistance provided to the weakest subjects affected by SLAPP

MONITORING – In 2024 in Italy, Ossigeno directly detected and confirmed 516 intimidations and threats against journalists, bloggers and other media workers in Italy (264 confirmed and 262 highly probable). The intimidations were carried out mostly with intimidations of various kinds (insults, offensive writings, posts on social media), 15% by criminals, 21% by the political-institutional world and 25% by the world of football. 22% of the intimidations were conducted with unfounded lawsuits and other specious legal actions (SLAPPS), half of which came from politicians and public administrations. The full report is published at this link  in three parts in English on the ossigeno.info website. The individual cases are documented on the Italian version of the site. The report confirms a deeply rooted endemic phenomenon, a disease that affects a large number of individuals and obscures much news of public interest. In fact, while much journalistic information circulates without difficulty in Italy, much more is obscured due to intimidation, threats and unjustified retaliation against those who publish it. Italy, according to available data, is the European country with the most threatened journalists, with the highest number of journalists under police escort or protected by law enforcement in other ways. However, Ossigeno per l’Informazione believes that this creeping and worrying threat to freedom of the press can also be identified in other European democracies if similar investigative tools were to be used. With regard to SLAPPs, Ossigeno’s report gives account of 132 episodes of intimidation by legal means carried out in the last three years in Italy to the detriment of 290 journalists, bloggers, human rights defenders, opinion makers. All these incidents can be considered as SLAPPs, i.e. manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings to prevent or discourage public participation, according to the definition used in the EU ANTI SLAPP Directive 2024/1069 approved to combat them. However, these incidents do not fall within the scope of the countermeasures contemplated by the recent EU Directive, which concerns the small percentage of incidents involving at least two different nation states. The Directive has not yet been implemented in Italy and will be too restrictive even when it is implemented. In fact, it does not cover the legal actions that are most frequently abused in Italy to intimidate journalists: criminal actions, in particular defamation lawsuits.

PUBLICATION OF INCIDENTS  – All the incidents of intimidation detected and certified by OSSIGENO are published with details on the Ossigeno website and on Ossigeno social channels. Moreover are provided statistics that indicate the specific nature and trend of the phenomenon of threats and SLAPPs and its evolution over time. Publication gives visibility to victims and helps them to resist.

LEGAL ASSISTANCE – In eight years, the Legal Help Desk of Ossigeno per l’Informazione, in collaboration with Media Defence https://www.mediadefence.org/ , has provided free legal assistance to 93 journalists, bloggers and rights defenders who did not have the resources necessary to defend themselves in court by paying a trusted lawyer with particular expertise. In the trials held, Ossigeno’s lawyers have obtained favourable sentences for 98% of their clients. It is therefore demonstrated that it is possible to successfully provide a service of this type, which Ossigeno is trying to extend by creating a support network, involving experts, consultants and organizations willing to help journalists who are being silenced by serious and evident violations of freedom of expression. These violations include promoting legal actions designed specifically to harm and silence the economically weakest journalists, those who operate in peripheral areas and those who do not have the full support of their publisher to deal with these situations. A network of this kind, if adequately funded and supported, can prevent the freedom of individual journalists from being compromised, as well as the freedom of information and the right of citizens to be informed.