Following the extensive SLAPP action against us, resulting in the suspension of our Google AdSense and Instagram accounts, we have begun our legal campaign to address this action. We have made multiple reports to the relevant authorities, and we have also sent official legal letters to the online platforms, which should arrive in the coming days.
The SLAPP action comes after a year-long campaign of legal warfare by Alkagesta, an Azeri oil company based in Malta that we investigated.
We are addressing the SLAPP action in relation to the EU’s Digital Services Act, and we believe there are tools which we can use to assert our rights in the EU. We have been taken aback by the systematic effects of the restrictions imposed by online platforms in the EU, and we will also take this opportunity to ensure that the legal weapons which Alkagesta has abused to promote the SLAPP are exhausted and never used again. This is in our interest and for our long-term sustainability.
This is why we are also taking our fight to all legal and political levels, both from regulatory and legal standpoints and also from the policy position that online platforms should not restrict the work of journalists in the EU.
Our investigation into Alkagesta will be given higher prominence and is being referred to in our reports sent to the relevant entities. Alkagesta has invested considerable sums of money and resources to conduct its malicious campaign – this is because everything we published in our investigation is true and deeply embarrassing for them. Alkagesta has spent a year conducting vexatious legal warfare in an attempt to put our investigation offline. After they failed, they started a civil case in Court.
We are determined to make sure that they fail again.
On a wider political level, we believe that this fight has two main themes. One is the threat to journalism in Europe by malicious actors through the abuse of legal tools. Secondly, there is the theme of our country being impacted and affected by foreign criminal actors in an environment of widespread impunity for corruption.
So, come what may, we will not let go of this fight.
In the meantime, we will work harder to secure our independence and sustainability. We will litigate with online platforms on a point of principle if necessary because we advocate for free speech. But we will also further build our infrastructure to ensure that we become less reliant on these platforms.
We believe in our fight, and this is also why we need your support.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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