# Strengthening Democracy and Media Freedom and Pluralism in the EU: the undue use of actions under civil and criminal law to silence journalists, NGOs and civil society

European Parliament procedure 2021/2036(INI) (INI - Own-initiative procedure, 9th term, committee CULT / JURI / LIBE). Stage: Procedure completed. 599 committee amendments tabled by 68 Members between 2021-06-29 and 2021-09-06.

## What the amendments focus on

This own-initiative report addresses strengthening democracy and media freedom and pluralism in the EU, including the undue use of civil and criminal actions to silence journalists, NGOs and civil society. The amendments stress media independence and pluralism and concern over political interference, and repeatedly call for a directive against strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) to protect journalists and whistleblowers, with references to monitoring under the Rule of Law report.

## Most active Members on this file

| Member | Country | Group | Amendments | Markdown |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diana RIBA I GINER | Spain | Verts/ALE | 119 | https://amendeu.com/md/meps/197832.md |
| Manon AUBRY | France | GUE/NGL | 114 | https://amendeu.com/md/meps/197533.md |
| Marie TOUSSAINT | France | Verts/ALE | 111 | https://amendeu.com/md/meps/97236.md |
| Clare DALY | Ireland | GUE/NGL | 79 | https://amendeu.com/md/meps/197731.md |
| Grace O'SULLIVAN | Ireland | Verts/ALE | 58 | https://amendeu.com/md/meps/197889.md |
| Anna DEPARNAY-GRUNENBERG | Germany | Verts/ALE | 58 | https://amendeu.com/md/meps/197453.md |
| Benoît BITEAU | France | Verts/ALE | 58 | https://amendeu.com/md/meps/197512.md |
| Ramona STRUGARIU | Romania | RE | 56 | https://amendeu.com/md/meps/134605.md |
| Hilde VAUTMANS | Belgium | RE | 55 | https://amendeu.com/md/meps/130100.md |
| Karen MELCHIOR | Denmark | RE | 54 | https://amendeu.com/md/meps/197567.md |
| Michal ŠIMEČKA | Slovakia | RE | 52 | https://amendeu.com/md/meps/103746.md |
| Olivier CHASTEL | Belgium | RE | 52 | https://amendeu.com/md/meps/197463.md |
| Sarah WIENER | Austria | Verts/ALE | 51 | https://amendeu.com/md/meps/197675.md |
| Domènec RUIZ DEVESA | Spain | S&D | 46 | https://amendeu.com/md/meps/127096.md |
| Roberta METSOLA | Malta | PPE | 43 | https://amendeu.com/md/meps/118859.md |

## Official source documents

- PE695.083: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/CULT-AM-695083_EN.pdf
- PE695.299: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/CJ03-AM-695300_EN.pdf
- PE695.300: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/CJ03-AM-695300_EN.pdf

Full amendment texts, votes and exports: https://amendeu.com/dossiers/2021-2036-INI · machine-readable: https://amendeu.com/data/dossiers/2021-2036-INI.json

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Source: AmendEU (amendeu.com), built from Parltrack (ODbL), European Parliament Open Data ((c) European Union) and official Parliament documents. Aggregates CC BY 4.0.
Data refreshed: 2026-07-27. Human-readable version: https://amendeu.com/dossiers/2021-2036-INI
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