Human Rights Watch said Thursday it was worried that lawsuits meant to muzzle environmental advocacy groups were inhibiting free speech. A lawsuit filed by Canadian logging company Resolute Forest Products against Greenpeace, Stand.earth and a handful of staff members uses the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act from 1970 in the U.S. courts. According to Human Rights Watch, the logging company accuses Greenpeace of generating revenue from misleading campaigns. Matthew Parsons, a coordinator in the environmental division of Human Rights Watch, said the $230 million lawsuit by the logging company is an example of “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” known also as SLAPPs. “SLAPPs are meant to drain activists’ resources and intimidate them into silence,” he wrote . “When saddled with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, […]