A national free-speech organization gave Indiana a passing grade for a longstanding law meant to protect Hoosiers' First Amendment rights.

In its annual report card released Aug. 25, the Institute for Free Speech graded how states protect their residents from a "strategic lawsuit against public participation," or a SLAPP suit.

Corporations and public figures have sought this type of legal action to silence speech and criticism they dislike. Through the weight of fear, exhaustion and mounting legal costs, these lawsuits often don't need to be successful to compel the defending party and others to chill their expression.

Indiana law has "reasonably strong" protections to ward off such lawsuits, according to the institute's analysis, but it warns that two issues make the legislation weak

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