French SLAPP example

Summary: Misusing deep pockets to suppress the truth, the EPO continues its tradition of bullying reporters and trying to discredit/bankrupt them (sending a chilling signal to the rest of them)

IN part 1 we explained how the EPO -- and Team Battistelli in particular -- is silencing the media. They use SLAPP tactics -- basically tactics which are illegal in some parts of the world.

This series requires a very long time and a great deal of preparation because many documents are in Croatian. The time required to expose the EPO's war on the media and SLAPPing of journalists is especially long, hence the long intervals between parts.

"They use SLAPP tactics -- basically tactics which are illegal in some parts of the world."Corruption followed by bullying (to silence those who understand this corruption) is not a novel concept; the Mafia does it all the time. Media exposure leads to law enforcement (bar immunity) and that's what management of the EPO fears most. Exposure; Truth; Facts. Those are the real enemies of the EPO. That's why EPO management lies in just about every single public statement these days. Liars and crooks is what the EPO's management has been reduced to.

In the past week alone I've received about 3 requests from people close to EPO management; they want names removed from my articles. I declined of course. Remember Elodie Bergot? The French lady who got her job (some argue) due to nepotism alone? Well, as things get hot and heavy she'll find the brain drain/exodus/HR crisis deepening. People find that the negative publicity associated with the EPO is a liability; EPO careers are not a selling point but a downside. This is just the legacy of Team Battistelli; they harm not only current staff but also former staff or alumni.

"In the past week alone I've received about 3 requests from people close to EPO management; they want names removed from my articles."This series focuses primarily on Croatian affairs; it does not mean that the EPO's war on the media is limited to that. We have already covered about half a dozen different aspects of this war on media. We'll revisit the subject in the future, no doubt, but today's subject will be the court case between Željko Topić and tjedno.hr, a news portal in Croatia.

"We heard that Topić had started a legal action against tjedno.hr," someone told us earlier this summer. "Tjedno is one of the Croatian "news portals"/newspapers that has published a lot of stuff about Topić's activities at the DZIV. So it would be interesting to find out more about that case and its current status if documents are available."

Several years ago we linked to many of these articles; we knew some SLAPPing was going on, but unless some background information could be supplied (including court material) we could not be certain about the underlying details.

"The Tjedno SLAPP case was studied very recently, based on documents and people who understand the language."Until now.

The Tjedno SLAPP case was studied very recently, based on documents and people who understand the language. "Some information about Topić's SLAPP case against the Croatian news portal tjedno.hr has become available," one of our sources told us. "According to the available information, the lawsuit was filed in January 2015 and Topić is seeking damages of 200,000 Croatian Kuna (about 30,000 Euros) plus legal costs. Tjedno filed its reply in May 2016 and the case is still ongoing."

The new information is currently being evaluated at this end, so more details will be published later. ⬆