Legal Threats Against Lawyers Protecting Journalists: Preliminary Findings

The American Bar Association Centre for Human Rights, Media Defence, and Thomson Reuters Foundation are reviewing cases of harassment and persecution of lawyers who represent journalists. The research, a first of its kind, surveyed the last ten years and identified 40 cases, most of them across Guatemala, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Russia, Zimbabwe, Kyrgyzstan, Ethiopia, Belarus, China, and Hong Kong. The preliminary report notes the cited figures likely do not fully account for the persecution of lawyers defending journalists worldwide. The initial findings point to four groups of threats. 1) Criminal and other lawsuits: examples include “anti-state, anti-terror, bribery and corruption laws, as well as false news laws.” 2) Undermining the lawyers’ ability to defend journalists: tactics range from seizure of lawyers’ property (such as case files) to disqualification from a particular case to cyberattacks and spyware. 3) Undermining the lawyers’ ability to practice their profession: authorities resort to arbitrary disbarment or suspension of licenses, abuse of disciplinary proceedings, change of bar association rules, and “foreign agent” labels. Finally, lawyers have faced 4) Death threats, physical assault, forced exile, and restrictions on travel and communication.