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this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2024
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No, not criminal prosecutions for what should be a minor issue, but definitely civil suits. SLAPP suits have been a problem, where the plaintiff doesn't necessarily expect to win. They just want to punish people by making their lives miserable through drawn out litigation. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UN8bJb8biZU
Compared to other countries our risk is pretty low. Does the risk of a SLAPP keep you from reviewing a restaurant? In Portugal people that have been scammed out of money on non-existent rentals are scared to me names because of the very real risk of criminal prosecution.
In Portugal, as far as I know uniquelly in the Western World, Libel is a Criminal matter.
It's mainly used by politicians (who have the influence to get the local version of the Public Prosecution Office to prosecute it) to go after people who accuse them of something as means to shut up less powerful people up.
(Personally I think the reason it's Criminal rather than Civil is exactly so that the powerful or well-connected can use Justice as a tool against others for free rather than the American system were it's the Moneyed that get to use Justice as a tool against others)
Unsurprisingly there is lots of corruption over here. Also Justice is so slow that it de facto doesn't work for most of the time, though in this kind of situation they make sure it goes all the way.
(I actually know somebody who was convicted of Libel for accusing a politician of Corruption ... and more than a decade later that guy was in jail for Corruption - first one ever in Portugal - and I can tell you lots of people inside the Public Prosecution Office from his party tried to discretelly shelve the process until the deadlines expired and had to be threatenned with being exposed in the Pressed)
It's part of the reason why this country is such a disgrace (and I say this as somebody who lived and worked in a couple of countries in Europe so have lots of references to compare it against).