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, offers direct representation, submits amicus curiae briefs, 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.[1][additional citation(s) needed] 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.[citation needed]
Other journalists among the committee's early members were Kenneth Auchincloss, Elsie Carper, Lyle Denniston, James Doyle, James Goodale, and Walter Cronkite.[citation needed]
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[2] 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.[non-primary source needed]
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.[1]
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.[non-primary source needed]
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][1] 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.[non-primary source needed][promotion?]
In 2014, the Reporters Committee led an effort to unseal transcripts of witness testimony in a grand jury investigation[14] of the Chicago Tribune. The newspaper ran a front-page story[15] 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.[16] The Reporters Committee and the AP filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act for records around the FBI's policies for impersonation,[17] and secured a victory in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017.[18]
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[19] 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.[20]
In 2018, the Reporters Committee also filed a similar lawsuit over the FBI's impersonation of documentary filmmakers.[21][22]
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.[23]
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.[24] 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.[25]
In 2022, 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.[26]
In November 2024, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press helped the Institute for Nonprofit News secure press credentials for all of its 475 member news organizations.[27]
Resources
In addition to litigation[28] and filing amicus curie briefs,[29] Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press 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 Hotline is available to journalists and media lawyers with legal questions.[1][30] The Reporters Committee's Open Government Guide[31][32] is a complete compendium of information on every state's open records and open meetings laws. The Open Courts Compendium[33][32] explains court access issues and provides specific additional information for each state and federal circuit. The Reporter's Privilege Compendium[34][32] 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. The Committee has also defended reporters in Court free of charge since its founding.[1]
In 2013, the Reporters Committee also launched iFOIA,[35] 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.[36][37]
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.[38][39]
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,[40][32] and a record of federal cases since 1844 involving leaks of government information to the news media.
In 2020 and 2021, ProJourn was piloted in Washington and California before being expanded to Georgia, North Carolina, New York, Texas and Illinois. It helps connect pro-bono lawyers with journalists who need assistance with legal tasks like pre-publication review or records requests.[1]
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exercised freely. Such freedom implies the absence of interference from an overreaching state; its preservation may be sought through a constitution or other legal protection and security. It is in opposition to paid press, where communities, police organizations, and governments are paid for their copyrights.
Strategic lawsuits against public participation, or strategic litigation against public participation, are lawsuits intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Source protection, sometimes also referred to as source confidentiality or in the U.S. as the reporter's privilege, is a right accorded to journalists under the laws of many countries, as well as under international law. It prohibits authorities, including the courts, from compelling a journalist to reveal the identity of an anonymous source for a story. The right is based on a recognition that without a strong guarantee of anonymity, many would be deterred from coming forward and sharing information of public interests with journalists.
The current government of Russia maintains laws and practices that make it difficult for directors of mass-media outlets to carry out independent policies. These laws and practices also hinder the ability of journalists to access sources of information and to work without outside pressure. Media inside Russia includes television and radio channels, periodicals, and Internet media, which according to the laws of the Russian Federation may be either state or private property.
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.
James Emanuel "Jeb" Boasberg is an American lawyer who is the chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He served as the presiding judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court from 2020 to 2021 and is a former associate judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
The Wikimedia Foundation has been involved in several lawsuits, generally regarding the content of Wikipedia. They have won some and lost others. In the United States, the Wikimedia Foundation typically wins defamation lawsuits brought against it due to protections that web platforms receive from laws like Section 230.
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.
Most Azerbaijanis receive their information from mainstream television, which is unswervingly pro-government and under strict government control. According to a 2012 report of the NGO "Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS)" Azerbaijani citizens are unable to access objective and reliable news on human rights issues relevant to Azerbaijan and the population is under-informed about matters of public interest.
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.
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).
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