I'm an American investigative journalist based in Spain raising money to defend free speech against frivolous, harassing lawsuits. I was sued in a Spanish court for posting on social media documents and proceedings that took place 5,000 miles away in a Washington state public court. Europe does not have laws that prohibit frivolous, harassing lawsuits to silence and censor, called SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation). 

I was forced to hire an attorney in Spain and won my case, which a Madrid court dismissed. 

I was sent another harassing letter by the lawyer for Alex Berezow, who works with the American Council on Science and Health, in November 2025, threatening another expensive lawsuit for reasons that are not clear. I’m now raising funds to pay attorney fees and to promote anti-SLAPP laws to defend reporters and average people from harassing lawsuits designed to silence and censor.

This fund supports my legal defense and the promotion of laws for journalists and others to speak without fear of legal persecution in Europe. The European Union just passed new rules to protect people and journalists against SLAPPs, but few, if any, countries have passed new laws. Every dollar you donate will work towards promoting legal protections for people speaking out about corruption. We will also work to pass anti-SLAPP laws in Europe to protect free speech for all people, including Americans.

Free speech is under assault in Europe. Anyone, including Americans, face legal consequences for social media posts because of the UK's Online Safety Act and the European Union's Digital Services Act. Irish comedian Graham Linehan, for example, was placed in handcuffs recently at Heathrow Airport for running afoul of UK speech laws. In a separate incident, a German woman received a harsher prison sentence than a convicted rapist, after she called him a “disgraceful rapist pig” and a “disgusting freak”, defamatory under German law. 

WHO IS PAUL D. THACKER?

I've written on conflicts of interests and corruption in science and medicine for multiple outlets, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, NEJM, The New Republic, Real Clear Investigations, The Progressive, UnHerd, Vice, Slate, JAMA, Environmental Science & Technology, and Mother Jones. 

I won a 2021 British Journalism Award for a series in The BMJ on the financial interests of medical experts advising U.S. and U.K. governments during the COVID-19 pandemic. A separate BMJ investigation I wrote on Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine is the most highly viewed article in all of science for 2021 and was finalist for another investigative award. 

WHO IS ALEX BEREZOW AND ACSH?

One of the most corrupt nonprofits in science, the American Council on Science and Health is a corporate front group that takes money from industry to promote industry talking points. Over the decades, ACSH has said junk food is not bad while taking money from companies like McDonalds and Coca-Cola; said pesticides like glyphosate aren’t dangerous while taking money from Monsanto, etc… Pretty much any corporate bad actor, ACSH has taken money from them. 

I wrote about ACSH and one of their officials, Alex Berezow, for the Washington Post where I covered their funding by chemical companies and attacks on reporters; for the enviro site Grist where I reported on their funding from Chevron, Bayer, Monsanto, and the tobacco conglomerate Altria, as well as Alex Berezow’s denigrating post for ACSH on New York Times reporter Danny Hakim; and for my own newsletter, The DisInformation Chronicle, where I reported on a slew of hate-filled screeds Berezow had written for ACSH attacking reporters and scientists. 

I also wrote about ACSH’s dirty tricks for VICE and The Progressive.

I was contacted in 2023, by Alex Berezow’s ex-wife who told me that she had fled the United States to protect her daughter from Alex, who she described as mentally ill. When I dug through court documents, I found that Alex Berezow was on multiple drugs and drank while working for ACSH to destroy journalists and academics with posts on ACSH’s website. Court documents also showed that Alex had admitted to pedophilic behavior and attraction to his own infant daughter, which explains why his ex-wife had fled back to her native Poland. 

I decided to show up at a court in Washington State by Zoom where Alex Berezow was placed under oath and asked questions. I tweeted some of the court documents and proceedings, and then I began receiving threatening emails from Alex Berezow and an attorney he hired in Spain.

I was attending an open court by Zoom in Washington State and tweeting documents from that case, but Berezow sued me in Spain. Like other countries in Europe, Spain does not have Anti-SLAPP laws to protect free speech. While Alex Berezow sued me in Spain, he did not sue reporter Michael Volpe who wrote about Berezow’s pedophilic fantasies, because Volpe lives in the state of Illinois which has anti-SLAPP protections.

FIND THE LEGAL DETAILS BELOW

• The Madrid court dismissed Berezow’s lawsuit in December 2024. In the ruling the judge wrote that, while I had not called Alex Berzow a pedophile, I could have and that would not violate Spanish law. “…the defendant maintains that the plaintiff “has admitted to having a history of mental illnesses that include pedophilic thoughts towards his own daughter” or that he writes his articles “having consumed psychotropic drugs and alcohol every night,” do not in themselves constitute a criminal offense…. [C]alling a person a surreptitious pedophile or even directly (as the defendant has referred to the plaintiff here) does not fit the criminal type of slander, given that a relatively detailed description of the crime imputed to the person in question is necessary.”
• A judge dismissed Berezow’s appeal in March 2025.
• Berezow’s second appeal was dismissed in May 2025, ending the case.
• In November 2025, Alex Berezow started up the process again, sending a legal threat to my house. The threat does not cite anything that I have done. This is harassment. We need laws in Europe to protect people against frivolous harassing lawsuits.

If you have any questions, or want to learn more, my personal email is thackerpd@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you. 

Thank you for defending free speech.

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FURTHER BACKGROUND ON ACSH

• The director of communications at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told People Magazine in 1979 that the American Council on Science and Health “is a sham, an industry front” that just makes “blanket endorsements of food additives.
• Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) ran an expose on ACSH in 1990, noting that when ACSH’s executive director appeared on CNN to beat up on environmentalists, CNN forgot to mention that more than half of ACSH’s funding came from corporations or corporate foundations, many of them food and chemical companies.
• Mother Jones published a treasure trove of ACSH’s internal documents in 2012 that showed their reliance on secret corporate dollars, with funders including Chevron, Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, Dr. Pepper, Bayer Cropscience, Procter and Gamble, and others.

COURT DOCUMENTS THAT I POSTED ON SOCIAL MEDIA

• Minutes from Gdansk Family Court: Alex Berezow testified that “I told my wife I had sexual thoughts related to the baby” and to taking Zoloft and other medications. His wife testified that he took multiple psychotropic drugs, liked taking them, and combined them with drinking.
• Certified statement by nanny Dominika Ujazdowska: The nanny wrote about Alex Berezow, “I found his behavior very interesting because I work with young people with mental problems and I could often notice disorders in his behavior.” She also wrote that the wife told her Alex Berezow has pedophile inclinations.
• Certified statement of psychologist: Psychologist found that Alex Berezow should not be allowed uncontrolled contact with his daughter due to the danger of his mental health.