Judges and legal professionals in Bosnia and Herzegovina discussed the latest European standards on the protection from defamation and strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) during a capacity-building session held in Sarajevo. The discussions focused on key instruments such as the Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec(2024)2 on countering the use of SLAPPs and the European Union Directive (EU) 2024/1069 on protecting individuals engaged in public debate from manifestly unfounded or abusive legal proceedings.

Through practical case studies, 25 representatives from the justice system explored how to identify SLAPP cases and reviewed the findings of a recent regional study analysing legal frameworks across the Western Balkans. The study, Regional Baseline Assessment of Legislative and Policy Needs for Implementation of Council of Europe and European Union Standards on Countering the Use of SLAPP-s, developed within the PROFREX regional action, offered insights into integrating anti-SLAPP mechanisms into domestic systems.

Research indicates that defamation cases remain the most common form of SLAPPs, making them a recurring focus of capacity-building initiatives for the judiciary and prosecution services. The re-criminalisation of defamation in Republika Srpska in 2023 has introduced new challenges in balancing enforcement of these provisions with the protection of freedom of expression, as guaranteed by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights.

The capacity-building session on countering defamation and strategic lawsuits against public participation was organised in collaboration with two entity centres for training of judges and prosecutors, as part of the action “Protecting freedom of expression and of the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina (PROFREX)” implemented by the Division for Cooperation on Freedom of Expression of the Council of Europe as part of the joint European Union and the Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye”.