An Iraqi court has ordered The Guardian newspaper to pay Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki UK £52,000 for an April article which characterized the new leader as "increasingly authoritarian," The Guardian yesterday reported. The ruling is subject yet to several appeals.

Global advocates of freedom of the press contend the lawsuit is part of a larger attack on impartial journalism throughout the region, The Guardian today reported. The prime minister's administration has apparently sued four organisations in the last year, forcing out local news agency Al-Jazeera for what the administration called anti-government bias.

The technique of silencing reporters through civil process has come to be known in English-speaking countries as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation or SLAPP, according to Reporters Without Borders. Such process usually takes the form of a defamation action carried out with the aim of forcing the target, a news media or NGO, to either fold or retract because mounting legal costs or the threat of a ruinous damages award, the organisation said.