The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press(RCFP) is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that provides pro bono legal services and resources to and on behalf of journalists. The organization pursues litigation,[1] offers direct representation, submits amicus curiae briefs,[2] and provides other legal assistance on matters involving the First Amendment, press freedom, freedom of information, and court access issues.
The Reporters Committee was formed in 1970 after New York Times reporter Earl Caldwell was ordered to reveal his sources within the Black Panthers. This led to a meeting among journalists — including J. Anthony Lukas, Murray Fromson, Fred Graham, Jack Nelson, Robert Maynard, Ben Bradlee, Tom Wicker, and Mike Wallace, among others — to discuss the need to provide legal assistance and resources to protect journalists’ First Amendment rights. The journalists in attendance formed a part-time committee dedicated to this issue, and they eventually garnered enough support from foundations and news organizations to build a staff and recruit attorneys willing to volunteer their services.
Other journalists among the committee's early members were Kenneth Auchincloss, Elsie Carper, Lyle Denniston, James Doyle, James Goodale, and Walter Cronkite.
Organizational leadership
Jack Landau, the Reporters Committee's first executive director, implemented many of the legal defense projects that are central to the organization today. He started the legal defense hotline[3] for journalists seeking guidance on free press and information issues, the first magazine for the press devoted to news media law developments, and the first service center offering free help to the press on accessing federal and state public records.
In 1985, Jane E. Kirtley replaced Landau as executive director. One of Kirtley's top priorities was ensuring journalists had access to knowledge of reliable legal resources. Under her direction, the Reporters Committee created the 'Open Government Guide',[4] an online resource that reviews the open records and open meetings laws in every state and Washington, D.C. The guide includes expert commentary from attorneys who are familiar with the provisions of their state's code, as well as court rulings and informal practices that affect the public's ability to obtain copies of public documents and attend government meetings. 'Agents of Discovery'[5] a series of installments reporting on subpoenas served to the news media, was another of Kirtley's major projects. Kirtley also led the Reporters Committee's efforts to produce 'The First Amendment Handbook',[6] a tool that provides basic information about media law for reporters and newsrooms and helped launch a fellowship program for the next generation of media attorneys.
In 2000, Lucy Dalglish took over as executive director.[7] Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Reporters Committee was a leading authority on efforts to withhold important information from the public. In 2002, the Reporters Committee released the first edition of "Homefront Confidential',[8] a series of summaries highlighting the evolution of the public's right to know in a post-September 11 climate.
Since 2012, Bruce Brown has served as the executive director of the Reporters Committee,[9] and worked to expand the organization's pro bono legal services and resources. With the help of Legal Director Katie Townsend,[10] who joined the organization in 2014,[11] he has built a growing litigation practice[12] that offers journalists and media organizations representation, amicus curiae support,[13] and other legal services in cases involving public records and court access, subpoena and libel defense, and more.
Since the Reporters Committee's founding, no reporter has paid for the organization's assistance in defending their First Amendment rights.
Legal resources
The Reporters Committee supports freedom of information in the United States through a number of free legal resources for those who gather and report the news. The Legal Defense and FOIA Hotline is available at any time to journalists and media lawyers with legal questions. The Reporters Committee's Open Government Guide[14] is a complete compendium of information on every state's open records and open meetings laws. The Open Courts Compendium[15] explains court access issues and provides specific additional information for each state and federal circuit. The Reporter's Privilege Compendium[16] is a collection of information on the rights of reporters not to be compelled to testify or disclose sources and information in court in each state and federal circuit.
In 2013, the Reporters Committee also launched iFOIA, a tool to file and track state and federal open records requests, and in 2016 the organization launched the FOIA Wiki, a website devoted to the federal Freedom of Information Act.[citation needed]
The organization also helped found the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, and in 2018, published a report based on the tracker's data assessing the state of press freedom in the U.S.[17]
Other Reporters Committee resources include a digital interactive map documenting the policies governing public access to police body camera footage in more than 100 police departments,[18] and a record of federal cases since 1844 involving leaks of government information to the news media.
In 2017, the Reporters Committee brought a lawsuit on behalf of two freelance journalists who requested access to the law enforcement plans for the August 2017 “Unite the Right” rally that turned violent. As a result of a settlement with the City of Charlottesville, the Charlottesville Police Department plan was released, shedding light on law enforcement actions during the event.
The Reporters Committee also filed a federal open records lawsuit in 2018 against U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seeking access to records regarding the government's use of a summons authority in an attempt to force Twitter to reveal the users behind an anonymous account. A court order required CBP to release the records, which showed the summons had been issued improperly.
The Reporters Committee won a four-year lawsuit in 2018 on behalf of journalist Ziva Branstetter and Tulsa World over access to public records related to Oklahoma's botched execution of Clayton Lockett.[19] The court ordered thousands of pages of records to be released and ruled for the first time that public officials’ delays in releasing the information violated the public's right of access and Oklahoma Public Records Act.[20]
In 2016, the Reporters Committee and Time Inc. filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to unseal documents from the 1999 class action lawsuit settlement[21] regarding the construction of Trump Tower. In 2017, the case was returned to the district court, where the request was granted and documents detailing the terms of the more than $1 million settlement were released for the first time.[22]
In 2014, the Reporters Committee led an effort to unseal transcripts of witness testimony in a grand jury investigation[23] of the Chicago Tribune. The newspaper ran a front-page story[24] about the Battle of Midway. The subsequent grand jury investigation of reporter Stanley Johnston and the Tribune marks the only time in U.S. history that the government has attempted to prosecute a major newspaper for violating the Espionage Act for publishing leaked classified information. The Reporters Committee won the release of the transcripts, which are currently stored at the National Archives.
The Reporters Committee has been a part of several cases involving law enforcement's impersonation of journalists. In 2014, it was revealed that the FBI had impersonated an Associated Press reporter during the course of a 2007 investigation.[25] The Reporters Committee and the AP filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act for records around the FBI's policies for impersonation,[26] and secured a victory in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017.[27]
In 2018, the Reporters Committee also filed a similar lawsuit over the FBI's impersonation of documentary filmmakers.[28][29]
Representing the Los Angeles Times in court, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press forced the partial release of the search warrant affidavit in the Senator Richard Burr insider trading investigation.[30]
Freedom of information in the United States relates to the public's ability to access government records, meetings, and other information. In the United States, freedom of information legislation exists at all levels of government: federal level, state level, and local level.
The Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, is the United States federal freedom of information law that requires the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased or uncirculated information and documents controlled by the U.S. government, state, or other public authority upon request. The act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure procedures, and includes nine exemptions that define categories of information not subject to disclosure. The act was intended to make U.S. government agencies' functions more transparent so that the American public could more easily identify problems in government functioning and put pressure on Congress, agency officials, and the president to address them. The FOIA has been changed repeatedly by both the legislative and executive branches.
Judicial Watch (JW) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit American conservative activist group that files Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits to investigate claimed misconduct by government officials. Founded in 1994, JW has primarily targeted Democrats, in particular the administrations of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, as well as Hillary Clinton's role in them. It was founded by attorney Larry Klayman, and has been led by Tom Fitton since 2003.
In journalism, a source is a person, publication, or knowledge of other record or document that gives timely information. Outside journalism, sources are sometimes known as "news sources". Examples of sources include but are not limited to official records, publications or broadcasts, officials in government or business, organizations or corporations, witnesses of crime, accidents or other events, and people involved with or affected by a news event or issue.
The National Security Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-governmental, non-profit research and archival institution located on the campus of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1985 to check rising government secrecy. The National Security Archive is an investigative journalism center, open government advocate, international affairs research institute, and the largest repository of declassified U.S. documents outside the federal government. The National Security Archive has spurred the declassification of more than 15 million pages of government documents by being the leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), filing a total of more than 70,000 FOIA and declassification requests in its over 35+ years of history.
Apple v. Does was a high-profile legal proceeding in United States of America notable for bringing into question the breadth of the shield law protecting journalists from being forced to reveal their sources, and whether that law applied to online news journalists writing about corporate trade secrets. The case was also notable for the large collection of amici curiae who joined in the matter.
Public records are documents or pieces of information that are not considered confidential and generally pertain to the conduct of government.
Jason Arthur Leopold is an American senior investigative reporter for BuzzFeed News. He was previously an investigative reporter for Al Jazeera America and Vice News. He worked at Truthout as a senior editor and reporter, a position he left after three years on February 19, 2008, to co-found the web-based political magazine The Public Record, Leopold's profile page on The Public Record now says he is Editor-at-Large. Leopold returned to Truthout as Deputy Managing Editor in October 2009 and was made lead investigative reporter in 2012 before leaving Truthout in May 2013. He makes extensive use of the Freedom of Information Act to research stories.
Mark S. Zaid is an American attorney, based in Washington, D.C., with a practice focused on national security law, freedom of speech constitutional claims, and government accountability.
Public Citizen Litigation Group is a public interest law firm in the United States.The group is the litigation arm of the non-profit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. Its attorneys work on cases involving health and safety regulation, consumer rights, separation of powers, access to the courts, class actions, open government, and the First Amendment.
The Student Press Law Center (SPLC) is a non-profit organization that aims to promote, support and defend press freedom rights for student journalists at high schools and colleges in the United States. It is dedicated to student free-press rights and provides information, advice and legal assistance at no charge for students and educators.
United States Department of Justice v. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, 489 U.S. 749 (1989), was a case before the United States Supreme Court.
The Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation (EEJF) is a grant-making foundation based in Oklahoma that provides grants to journalism institutions throughout the United States. In 2011, the foundation's assets were $91.1 million and $4 million was distributed in grants.
Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) is a non-profit organization founded in 2012 to fund and support free speech and freedom of the press. The organization originally managed crowd-funding campaigns for independent journalistic organizations, but now pursues technical projects to support journalists' digital security and conducts legal advocacy for journalists.
Ryan Noah Shapiro is a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Doctoral Program in History, Anthropology, Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS), a U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) researcher, and an advocate for animal rights.
Vanessa Leggett is an American freelance journalist and lecturer who was jailed by the U.S. Justice Department for 168 days for protecting sources and research notes for an independent book about a federal murder-for-hire case. At the time, it was the longest contempt-of-court imprisonment of a journalist in United States history for protecting sources. Leggett holds the record for serving the most time for protecting source material and without providing that material to negotiate a release from prison.
Corinna "Cori" Zarek is an American lawyer, public interest technologist and adjunct professor of media law.
The Illinois Public Access Counselor (PAC) is an attorney in the office of the Illinois Attorney General who is responsible for enforcing the state's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Open Meetings Act (OMA). The PAC is the head of the Public Access Bureau, a group of more than one dozen attorneys who process complaints against public bodies and provide education to the public on Illinois' transparency laws.
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) is a nonprofit and nonpartisan data gathering, data research, and data distribution organization in the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
Emma Best is an American investigative reporter and whistleblower. They gained national attention for their work with WikiLeaks and activist Julian Assange. Best is known for prolific filing of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests on behalf of MuckRock and co-founding the whistleblower site Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) which resulted in Best being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security and temporarily banned from filing FOIA requests.
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