When it comes to covering local news, the Tindle news team in west Wales take pride in digging deeper and going farther to get to the bottom of what’s happening. We report the news without fear or favour and we’re not afraid to ask the awkward questions.

It’s that commitment to getting to the heart of what’s happening that, for example, has Cambrian News honoured for being the best paper in the nation and its journalists too being awarded with accolades.

We are proud of the work we do for you.

Naturally, not every one likes our approach, particularly if you’re on the receiving end of our questions - or if you have something to hide that we believe is in your best interests to know.

While we may have the commitment to get to the truth, there are those with deep pockets who try and stop newspapers across Britain from doing our essential work.

On April 15, media outlets across the country are joining a Day of Action to call for the UK Government to include anti-SLAPP protections in the forthcoming King’s Speech.

SLAPPs are abusive lawsuits, nuisance files to the courts that try and prevent us from doing our job.

Journalists do not become journalists to prepare for court hearings. We join newsrooms, submit FOI requests, ask questions, report from council hearings and courts and speak to as many people as they can because we have a story to tell.

Importantly, we also know that local communities do better when there is more information in the public domain, not less.

Journalism is vital for local democracy to hold power in check and give a voice to the community, ensuring no one is beyond scrutiny.

However, unchecked wealth and influence has a powerful ally in its quest to prevent questions being asked and sheltering itself from uncomfortable attention; the British justice system. Abusive lawsuits, sometimes called SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation), allow those with money to threaten costly and time-intensive court action to prevent reporting being made public or to force published work from the public eye.

Abusive lawsuits are not genuine attempts to address flaws in the journalist’s work. Indeed many journalists are sued just for asking questions or requesting comment from someone who has not even read the piece before deciding to sue them. SLAPPs are attempts to silence reporting and cordon off those deserved of scrutiny from any form of public accountability.

All forms of journalism is vulnerable to this sort of abuse from legal bullies.

Right now two local Mill Media outlets, in Liverpool and London, are currently facing complex legal challenges solely due to their reporting. These are two small outlets and dealing with these types of abusive legal threats takes up a disproportionate amount of their resources, hindering their ability to inform their readers.

Many other local outlets across this country may be facing the exact same jeopardy but are fearful that by going public, by drawing their readers’ attention to the legal action, they could make things worse for themselves. As a result, we may never know the full scale of the issue, yet we must take action.

SLAPPs remove information from the public domain.

Every story, social media post, blog, report or published piece of work removed by a target who cannot afford to mount a defence, cannot afford to turn away from their work to prepare going to court, and cannot afford to endure the complexity and unpredictability of the British justice system, is something that leaves us all worse off.

Next month the government has an opportunity to re-address the balance to ensure that those targeted by legal bullies have the same right to justice as those wealthy enough to afford the legal costs. If the King’s Speech includes a Bill that will establish universal, clear and meaningful anti-SLAPP protections, we know legislative time will be put aside for Parliamentarians to take an important step for the rights of everyone to speak out.

In publishing this column, I have used information provided by the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition, an informal working group established in January 2021 comprising a number of freedom of expression, whistleblowing, anti-corruption and transparency organisations, as well as media lawyers, researchers and academics.

It’s vital that they continue, with our help, to ensure we are free to report on the stories that matter to you.

Here in west Wales, we will continue to do so. We will always continue to report without fear or favour.