The Platform for the Promotion of Journalism Protection and Journalist Safety, under the auspices of the Council of Europe, has issued an alert regarding threats to press freedom through judicial harassment concerning the PRESSHUB network and journalist Brîndușa Armanca, under the title Investigative Journalist Brîndușa Armanca and PressHub Face Multiple Defamation Lawsuits.
“Investigative journalist Brîndușa Armanca, the PressHub news portal, and other media outlets such as Libertatea, Click, Ziarul de Iaşi, and Sursa de Vest are facing multiple defamation lawsuits filed by Beniamin Lup, president of the WorldTeach Romania Association, a non-governmental organization registered as fighting human trafficking,” according to the alert issued on February 18, 2026.
The text of the alert registered under number 23/2026 reports that several articles written by Brîndușa Armanca and published by Presshub since 2022 have investigated the inconsistencies between Lup’s statements about the association’s activities and the circumstances surrounding the deaths of two of Beniamin Lup’s wives in similar circumstances.
“Armanca, PressHub, and other media outlets were sued in civil courts in Timiș, Bucharest, and Timișoara for violating privacy and reputation (Articles 71 and 72 of the Romanian Civil Code), with requests to remove the disputed articles, to refrain from publishing further information on this subject, and to pay substantial damages,” the alert states, citing cases 1551/30/2022, 42396/3/2024, 42400/3/2024, and 36547/325/2025 and the amount of €550,000 claimed by the plaintiff as compensation.
The case falls under the category of vexatious lawsuits against journalists and activists who express themselves critically in the public interest (SLAPPs) and was included in the Mapping Media Freedom Monitoring Report for 2025, on pages 25-26.
The Association of Independent Journalists in Romania (AZIR), the Romanian section of the European Association of Journalists (EAJ) based in Brussels, expressed its “full support for journalist Brîndușa Armanca in connection with the judicial harassment and legal pressure to which she has been subjected… Such practices fall within the internationally recognized category of judicial harassment of journalists (SLAPP suits), which pose a serious threat to independent media and democratic debate.”
Brîndușa Armanca, journalist and university professor of media studies, is a member of AZIR and part of the AEJ Arbitration and Conciliation Commission.
Background
In 2022, Presshub, a network owned by Freedom House Romania, published an article by Brîndușa Armanca and Sorin Istrate about the WorldTeach Association led by Beniamin Lup, who publicly announced that he had established a center for victims of trafficking in women and children, funded by UNCAGED, USA, with a large sum of money (approximately $1 million per year). Information obtained from open sources and on the ground contradicted Lup’s statements. Freedom House Romania and the Presshub network were sued for defamation. See the article.
The damages sought in this case are €1 million. Lup lost this case in the first instance.
In 2024, when Beniamin Lup’s third wife, a woman from the Republic of Moldova, died at the age of 45, the similarity of her death to that of his first wife, who died at the age of 42, attracted the attention of journalists Brîndușa Armanca and Sorin Istrate, who investigated the situation, especially since two investigations into manslaughter in rem had been opened in Romania and the Republic of Moldova. See the article.
For articles on this subject, Beniamin Lup filed two lawsuits to defend the reputation of both the Presshub network and journalist Armanca (but not her co-author), as well as the publications Libertatea, Click, Sursa de Vest, and Ziarul de Iași, asking the court to award him a total of one million euros in moral damages. The first lawsuit, a preliminary injunction, was definitively lost by the plaintiff.In 2025, the same plaintiff sued one of the journalists’ sources, Valentin Malanca, demanding €200,000 in damages and calling three journalists as “guarantors”: Daniel Dancea, Tiberiu Kiss, and Brîndușa Armanca.
Also in 2025, Beniamin Lup sued journalist Brîndușa Armanca for another article reporting on Lup’s dismissal by the American organization. The article is here.
The plaintiff’s claims amounted to €200,000.
The damages sought, amounting to hundreds of thousands of euros, indicate an intention to intimidate and silence journalists.
The courts have generally set six-month deadlines for the aforementioned lawsuits, which means that a trial can last up to six or seven years. For example, the lawsuit filed by Beniamin Lup in 2022 has its next hearing scheduled for May 2026.
What does a European alert mean?
By issuing an alert, the Platform for the Promotion of Journalism Protection and Journalist Safety draws the attention of the authorities to the fact that Romanian journalists are being harassed and intimidated through multiple lawsuits. By publicly posting the alert, journalists in the European Union learn about the pressures their colleagues have to face. At the same time, the alert calls for the protection of freedom of expression in the public interest.
As a next step, it is expected that the court will reject the plaintiff’s claims, in accordance with European anti-SLAPP standards, which are currently being adopted into Romanian law.
The authorities’ response is expected by May 18, 2026.
The absence of a response becomes a criterion for measuring the state’s good faith and the degree of democracy, press freedom, etc.
The platform’s website highlights several alerts concerning journalists in Romania: Emilia Șercan, Ovidiu Vanghele, Vlad Stoicescu, Diana Oncioiu, Boroka Parászka, Mihai Dragolea, and Radu Mocanu.
What is the status of the anti-SLAPP law in Romania?
In April 2024, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Directive (EU) 2024/1069 on protection against clearly unfounded claims or abusive legal proceedings against persons involved in public mobilization actions, in short, the anti-SLAPP Directive.
EU member states are required to adopt specific measures and provide guarantees to journalists, media entities, activists, members of academic institutions, etc. by May 7, 2026, the deadline for amending national legislation.
In 2025, Mapping Media Freedom recorded 344 legal incidents involving journalists and activists, according to the Monitoring Report. To date, 17 EU member states have implemented the standards of the Directive through specific laws.
The Romanian Ministry of Justice drafted an anti-SLAPP bill in June 2025. For now, it is not among the bills submitted for adoption in Parliament.
Indications that the lawsuit also serves to harass and discourage free speech include inconsistent evidence, exaggerated claims for moral damages, the lengthy duration of proceedings due to legal maneuvers, the fact that individuals are sued more often than organizations, and intimidation tactics based on the plaintiff’s influence and power (social status, money, position).
Journalists, media companies, and activists will benefit from greater protection with the enforcement of anti-SLAPP laws, as courts are required to adjudicate these types of cases expeditiously, limit the amount of damages, quickly dismiss clearly unfounded claims, and the state to provide guarantees for the exercise of the journalism profession without legal constraints.
Furthermore, “a plaintiff who has initiated abusive legal proceedings against public mobilization may be required, under the law, to pay a judicial fine of between 10,000 and 100,000 lei,” according to Article 12 of the draft law.
On May 12, 2025, a public debate on the anti-SLAPP bill was held in Bucharest, attended by representatives of the Ministry of Justice and several non-governmental organizations such as Active Watch, the Center for Independent Journalism, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Greenpeace Romania, the Foundation for the Development of Civil Society, and others.
At the suggestion of civil society, an extension of the future Romanian law is its application to domestic cases, not just cross-border ones, as provided for in Directive (EU) 2024/1069.
There is also a European Anti-SLAPP Monitor with the mission of raising public awareness of the role and effects of the law, hosted by The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF).
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