This week, The Loop talks to Thodoris Chondrogiannos from Reporters United, an investigative journalism group in Athens, Greece. After reporting on a double surveillance scandal, Chondrogiannis and his colleagues faced two lawsuits against them, so-called SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation). In the episode, we delve into how to survive a SLAPP and how it can hurt newsrooms.

Reporters United unveiled how there was a business link between Grigoris Dimitriadis, the second most powerful man in the country, and the spyware Predator. Dimitriadis was at the time head of the Greek security agency, which is under the competence of the Greek prime minister, Dimitriadis’ uncle. Predator is a powerful surveillance program, which – if you click a malicious link – gives access to everything on your phone, also in real-time.

It is a felony to use spyware against members of government, opposition leaders, or high-level public servants, but Reporters United proved that this was what happened. Smartphones, belonging to businessmen, journalists, prosecutors, state officers, politicians, government ministers and their associates, were targeted with Predator. Dimitriadis resigned but denied all claims and then raised a court case for defamation, suing RU for first €550,000, in a later case, which is not settled yet, for €3,3 million.

SLAPPs are becoming more and more common in Europe. They can make most small media outlets go bankrupt, but as Chondrogiannos stresses, they are not about the money but aimed at shutting up the journalists. SLAPPs require money and time, and the time spent on preparing court cases cannot be used for investigating. The court cases also put a big psychological pressure on the teams.

There is now an anti-SLAPP directive on European level. But it should be implemented and adjusted for every country, Chondrogiannos says, and he doubts that the Greek government will do this.