Obviously, There Are More Lawyers Than Journalists

Michael Hedges August 18, 2019 - Follow on Twitter

The arrival of that registered letter threatening legal action has become more common in newsrooms. Critical reporting, particularly of the investigative kind, irritates those on the receiving end of unflattering note. Many of the dismayed are rich, powerful and command legions of lawyers. The biggest newsrooms have their own lawyers. Smaller publishers and independent journalists suffer anxiety attacks and worse.

“If you write that, I will sue you!” is the provocative title of a report from the German Otto Brenner Stiftung (OBS), published in August. It details the legal correspondence received by German news outlets from lawyers representing a variety of clients. These “press law information letters” appear as public relations efforts to inject competing information into news items. The intention is to influence “unwelcome” reporting before publication.

This legal intervention, wrote the report’s authors Tobias Gostomzyk and Daniel Mossbrucker, yields mix results. “There are many indications that the general effectiveness of this instrument has long been overestimated.” Tabloid publishers, unsurprisingly, are more likely to be deterred, publishers of investigative reports much less. Indeed, investigative reporters and their editors receiving such correspondence from a lawyer are more motivated to dig deeper.

Hearing from a lawyer, said the report, “does not generally lead to intimidation but, rather, increased journalistic caution.” Rather than engage in protracted legal proceedings, newsroom lawyers prefer asking the courts to toss out the suit because the reports in question are no longer published. This avoids expensive litigation. Last year the German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) ruled the “press information letters” inadmissible if specific damages on publication are not spelled out. However, again, with no definitive court decision on the merits press freedom issues are left hanging.

In 2015, noted meedia.de (August 8), German public TV channel ZDF and Environmental Action Germany (DUH) collaborated on an investigation of automaker Daimler AG skirting diesel emission controls. The TV broadcaster received a letter from a lawyer representing Daimler. It said, in part: “If you continue to make any assertion that my client has manipulated emissions, we will act with all due care against you and hold you responsible, in particular, for any economic damage that my client incurs.” In the end, ZDF and DUH went on to publish their investigation, along with the lawyer’s letter. The diesel emissions scandal cost German automakers billions.

“Press law information letters” are similar to the onerous “strategic litigation against public participation” or SLAPP civil complaints. When applied to news outlets and reporters both aim to intimidate. While the press information letters are meant to affect editorial decisions, SLAPPs, explain the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), “seek to bleed the other party of resources and produce a chilling effect…also on those who consider speaking out on the issue in the future.”

In a classic SLAPP UK Guardian/Observer investigative reporter Carole Cadwalladr was sued by Arron Banks, principal funding source for the Leave.EU group and the Brexit political party, claiming “unlimited” damages and costs, noted Press Gazette (July 15). Ms Cadwalladr has written extensively about Mr. Banks’ ties to Russian government backers and the related Cambridge Analytica scandal, for which she was named technology journalist of the year at the UK Press Awards in April. Last year the Foreign Press Association awarded her for uncovering “links between Cambridge Analytica, the UK’s pro-Brexit campaigners and Donald Trump presidential election team,” said the Guardian (November 27, 2018). He has steadfastly denied any of the associations.

What appears to have set-off Mr. Banks were Ms Cadwalladr’s recent keynote at a June London event and an April TED2019 appearance in Vancouver, Canada. Noticably, he did not file a civil complaint against Guardian Media Group or Ted Conferences LLC. Recently Mr. Banks threatened streaming video service Netflix with a lawsuit over The Great Hack documentary, which profiles the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Independent Malta investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia was pursued by more than 40 lawsuits filed by various “Maltese politicians or their business associates,” noted the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) (April 24). “It costs very little to file a libel suit in Malta,” said her son Matthew. ”There’s almost no risk to the plaintiff. And the defendant has to pay to respond, otherwise they lose by default.” The lawsuits did little to intimidate Ms Caruana Galizia. She was murdered in a car-bombing in October 2017.

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