PATFox

The “Pioneering anti-SLAPP Training for Freedom of Expression (PATFox”) is a project co-funded by the European Commission, running from February 2022 to February 2024.

SLAPPs-Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation-are a concerning and fairly recent phenomenon targeting all those involved in building civil society and acting in the public interest. The data suggests that the use of legal threats to silence speech in Europe has grown exponentially over the past few years, especially in some EU member states.

PATFox was designed to address the untapped demand for anti-SLAPP education, training and awareness-raising initiatives by extending relevant knowledge about SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) among European legal professionals, improving lawyers’ knowledge and skills to effectively deal with SLAPPs and to better represent those targeted by these abusive actions, and so promoting front-line SLAPPs defence efforts across the European Union.

Over the two-year duration of the project, the Consortium designed, developed, and implemented the first European anti-SLAPP curriculum and trained 364 lawyers in 11 Member states: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, Malta, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

The cross-country curriculum is freely available and composed of more than 70 learning materials, drawing both on international expertise and European human rights principles as well as local procedural knowledge and case law.

The project was implemented by Fundación Internacional Baltasar Garzón (Spain), Blueprint for Free Speech (Germany), Media Development Center (Bulgaria), FUGGETLEN UJSAGIROK ALAPITVANYA (Hungary), Gong Udruge – Gong (Croatia), Fundatia Centrul pentru Jurnalism Independent – CJI (Romania), MEMO’98 (Slovakia), Technologiko Panepistimio Kyprou – Cyprus University of Technology (Cyprus), Fundacja Osrodek Kontroli Obywatelskiej – OKO (Poland), Zavod za kulturo raznolikosti – Open (Slovenia).