INSIDE STORY: How Labour tried to gag The National with £30k legal threat ahead of General Election
LABOUR have been condemned after attempting to stop The National from publishing a story using a legal threat.
The National was planning to publish an article last week about a senior Labour figure being reported to Police Scotland for alleged breaches of electoral law.
But Labour soon sent a threatening legal letter arguing that publishing it would be defamatory and in breach of electoral law - a “corrupt practice” and potentially a “criminal offence”, one that could result in jail for the journalists responsible.
Police Scotland dismissed the complaint a week later whilst The National deliberated over whether to risk tens of thousands of pounds in legal costs by publishing.
Legal threats like the one The National received from Labour come amid increasing concern about SLAPPs, which stands for “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation”.
The complicated acronym hides a simple tactic. A rich oligarch or shadowy corporation, for example, wanting to suppress a story, will threaten costly legal action unless the journalist or media outlet in question agrees not to publish what it knows.
While such legal action may be all but guaranteed to fail, achieving a victory would be a long, expensive process that most media simply cannot afford. And most often, these powerful agents have deeper pockets than the news outlets.
"SLAPPs are a pernicious attack on freedom of speech and democracy,” Roger Mullin told The Sunday National.
“No political party should be using SLAPPs to silence journalistic comment at any time, let alone during an election.”
The former SNP MP has long advocated for Scotland to tighten the law on SLAPPS. A petition he submitted to the Scottish Parliament was approved earlier this year, with Community Safety Minister Siobhian Brown (above) announcing the Scottish Government will consult on the issue in autumn this year.
Labour’s legal threat to The National came the same week The Independent reported that the party attempted to gag a prominent Black barrister who wrote a report about racism within the party.
The newspaper reported that a letter sent by lawyers representing Labour warned Martin Forde KC that he was “acting against the party’s interest” after he gave an interview with Al Jazeera in March 2023 saying there was a lack of debate and engagement by the party over his findings at the time.
In response, it has now emerged that the Labour Party sent Forde a robust legal letter – seen by The Independent – which accused him of acting against the party’s interests and advising him that it was “considering all of its options”.
It also comes as Labour’s manifesto for the 2024 election lacked no media-specific policies, despite senior figures including shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy previously committing to taking action against SLAPPs – mentioning in particular threats from Russian oligarchs.
Mullin added: “Despite what David Lammy says, SLAPPs are not the sole preserve of Russian oligarchs, and no political party, Labour included, should be using the law as a weapon against legitimate journalism."
