Of Portmanteaus and Pugs

Reporters Shield One Year Later

Who doesn’t love a good portmanteau–a word that blends together two different words? There is the creative: mockumentary (mock + documentary); the straightforward: motel (motor + hotel); and the just plain fun: slithy (lithe and slimy, thank you, Lewis Carroll). Then, there is the more insidious: lawfare (law + warfare).

Since the late 1980s, USAID has provided assistance to develop and strengthen independent media globally. A leading public donor in this space, USAID views a free and robust media as the lifeblood of democracy.

And journalists are more essential than ever to safeguarding democratic values.

The Threat

However, they are increasingly facing violence, harassment, repression, and censorship. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), less than halfway into 2024, 19 journalists have been killed, with 320 journalists behind bars. Women journalists are facing unprecedented online harassment according to a recent UNESCO and International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) report. This spring, we passed a grim milestone: the one-year anniversary of Russia’s wrongful detention of journalist Evan Gershkovich.

As authoritarian leaders are showing their determination to smother independent voices, from the more “traditional” tools of bullets and bailiffs to “creative” methods like transnational repression, they are also employing more existential and systematic strategies, such as lawfare. Not only are we witnessing the killing of journalists in order to silence watchdog reporting, but the killing of journalism.

Lawfare is a tactic that autocrats, oligarchs, and other rogue actors increasingly employ to abuse judicial processes or legal instruments to undermine democratic processes.

In the context of press freedom, such attacks are called strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPsuits.

These legal attacks are designed to silence, intimidate, and financially ruin journalists and media outlets. And, the powerful and corrupt often have deep pockets, loads of time, and unlimited access to lawyers to try to cripple and stifle them.

A 2022 study by the Foreign Policy Center found that threats of legal action such as SLAPPsuits have the greatest negative impact on investigative journalists continuing their work. A recent report by UNESCO also documents a rise in SLAPPs “by powerful actors that want to silence critical voices and undermine scrutiny.”

Brazilian journalist João Paulo Cuenca has received more than 100 lawsuits filed by pastors from a church that he tweeted about. Cameroonian journalist Nestor Nga Etoga has made nearly 100 court appearances since 2016, spent more than $35,000 on legal fees, and had to close his media outlet over charges of defamation and false news lawsuits related to his reporting on potential labor and human rights violations by an international timber company.

And, in the first lawsuit that a Reporters Shield member is facing, a Romanian businessman has sued Context.ro, an investigative news outlet in Romania, claiming that a series of the outlet’s articles regarding a stalled golf course project have damaged his reputation and his finances.

The plaintiff is seeking a staggering $3.68 million in compensation from Context.ro for the purported damages he claims to have suffered. Attila Biro, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Context.ro, notes that “we are not above the law as journalists, but these strategic litigations are just meant to drain us … . We [are using] up days, when we could track more of the precious public funds generated by honest Romanians who pay their taxes.”

Such lawsuits can be devastating. As comedian and late night host, John Oliver notes: “Lawsuits are like famous Instagram pugs — they don’t have to work to be considered very, very successful.”

The Need

To withstand lawfare, journalists and media outlets need robust protection — training on how to avoid lawsuits and resources to hire lawyers and cover legal fees. However, they often don’t have access to in-house legal counsel. They might spend six months to a year on an investigation, surviving on year-to-year grant funds.

Since they can’t afford lawsuits, many outlets self-censor their content to avoid attracting attention of those who might target them. The state often files criminal prosecutions alongside civil SLAPPsuits as part of a coordinated effort to overwhelm journalists and media outlets and weaken their legal defense.

What USAID is Doing About It

USAID partnered with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the Cyrus R. Vance Center, as well as law firms offering pro bono support, to create Reporters Shield — an innovative new program to defend investigative reporters and civil society organizations from lawsuits meant to drive them out of business or deter them from reporting.

Reporters Shield covers the cost of legal defense for journalists, civil society activists, and organizations battling lawsuits meant to silence their reporting or investigations. However, Reporters Shield is more than a legal protection program. It also helps journalists avoid lawsuits by providing resources for pre-publication legal review. And it connects journalists with qualified lawyers to help them navigate the legal process.

One year ago today, on World Press Freedom Day, USAID Administrator Power announced the launch and opening of memberships at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. She gave a call to action to donors, policymakers, and practitioners to join USAID in protecting journalism against threats. Since then, Reporters Shield has received 129 applications from 65 countries.

It has signed on five partners to coordinate legal responses, including the Vance Center for International Justice, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, Reviewed and Cleared, Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP), and the Pan-African Lawyers Union (PALU). And the Oak Foundation has announced it will contribute $4.5 million to Reporters Shield.

Now operating in the Americas, Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Northern Africa, and Africa, Reporters Shield will open to Asia in Summer 2024.

As FLIP’s Jonathan Bock notes, “Reporters Shield is essential because…in the long term, it will contribute to having more and better lawyers and laws that prevent this type of legal attacks.”

Success will only come from our collective efforts, and protection will only come from membership. We become stronger when more join. You can find more information on how it works and how to sign up here.

About the Author

Shannon Maguire is the Senior Media Advisor in USAID’s Bureau for Europe and Eurasia’s Technical Support Office in the Democracy and Governance Division.