The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) is the leading national nonprofit providing free legal help to journalists and news organizations. For over 50 years, the RCFP has provided free legal representation and support to reporters, editors, documentary filmmakers, media lawyers, and others who use their resources all across the United States. Since 2019, the HFPA has been proud to call the RCFP one of its grantees.

With a staff of almost 40, several of whom are completing one or two-year legal fellowships where they work closely with in-house attorneys – and a 35-member steering committee that includes journalists, documentary filmmakers, media lawyers, educators, and press freedom advocates – this organization offers a truly indispensable service. 

This is how Executive Director Bruce D. Brown describes the evolution of the RCFP: “It was created in 1970, at a time when members of the U.S. news media faced an uptick in government subpoenas asking journalists to name their confidential sources.” The acute threat to press freedom and newsgathering rights “prompted a group of reporters and attorneys to come together to discuss the need to provide legal help to journalists when their First Amendment rights were at risk.” Eventually, the meeting led to the formation of a committee that operated part-time. “Over the last five decades we’ve grown into a full-time staff that provides pro bono legal representation, resources, and support to defend the First Amendment and journalists’ rights to gather and report the news,” he states.

Appreciative of HFPA’s help, he says, “We are incredibly grateful for the transformative grants that the HFPA has made to the Reporters Committee over the last several years. In 2019, the HFPA’s contributions were used in partnership with other press freedom organizations to launch a national Protect Press Freedom campaign to raise awareness of the crucial purpose journalists serve in our society. Through the HFPA’s generous investments in the Reporters Committee, we’ve also been able to continue to expand our legal services and support, particularly for documentary filmmakers, as well as state and local journalists who might otherwise be unable to pursue stories that are important to their communities.”

It’s been an uphill battle to ensure the freedom of the press ethos. “We argue for access to information that benefits the reporting of multiple news organizations on national issues.”  He cites an example. “Reporters Committee attorneys represented Dow Jones, the Boston Globe, and Reuters in their successful effort to unseal thousands of pages of court records filed in bankruptcy proceedings involving Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. Bankruptcy court rules only allow documents to be sealed under certain narrow circumstances. We argued that those circumstances weren’t present in this case. Ultimately, the unsealed documents informed the news organizations’ reporting on, among other things, how the family which owns Purdue Pharma made efforts to shield their share of the company’s earnings from being accessed in litigation.”

Brown talks about the training programs the organization offers. “Reporters Committee attorneys and legal fellows regularly offer in-person and virtual training on a variety of topics for journalists and newsrooms. These sessions range from more introductory discussions – focused on the Reporters Committee’s free legal resources, basic media law, and newsgathering rights – to more tailored workshops that address how to safely cover protests and mass demonstrations, vet content ahead of publication to mitigate legal risks, protect confidential sources, and maximize legal defenses when reporting on sensitive topics,” he explains. “Our goal is to make sure that the training we offer is meeting the needs of journalists where they are and in the moment that they’re in. That’s how our current programming around safely covering protests came to exist – because of the calls we were getting to our hotline, and the newsgathering issues we were observing during the nationwide racial justice protests in 2020. In response, we updated our training in this area to help journalists understand how they could mitigate their risk of being arrested or physically attacked while reporting on these events.”

There are a myriad of ways in which one can contribute to the efforts of the Reporters Committee work. “Those who care about press freedom, whether they’re an individual, a foundation, or a company, can support our work through engagement, donations, and grants. Those in the news industry, whether reporters, editors, documentarians, or others working in journalism, can contribute by sharing our free legal resources with colleagues who can put them to use in their work. Attorneys who have practical experience in our issue areas, and are looking for opportunities to support our pro bono work, can email Reporters Committee Pro Bono Director Flavie Fuentes (ffuentes@rcfp.org).”

With a global reach, particularly now with the current state in Ukraine, the organization has been hands-on wherever possible. “The Reporters Committee’s work focuses on press freedom issues in the United States but there are a number of other terrific organizations with an international focus that are providing resources for journalists in Ukraine. We’ve been sharing information with supporters from groups like the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, the Global Investigative Journalism Network; and others who have helpful online guides and information for journalists reporting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and in other areas of conflict around the world.”

In the U.S., as well as in numerous other nations throughout the globe, press freedoms granted to journalists have been deteriorating. “We certainly see frequent threats to press freedom occurring internationally. The U.S. has traditionally been a model of a free press around the world. As an organization that primarily serves U.S. journalists, these international threats indicate that it continues to be important for us to present a strong, unified voice against the increasing legal threats, dangerous rhetoric and escalating harassment of journalists working to inform their communities,” he says. “Support from the HFPA and others enables us to continue to serve as a resource for journalists at home at a time when the news media faces a growing and alarming number of legal obstacles.” He reminds us that “As a whole, the United States’ protections for press freedom can, hopefully, continue to serve as a beacon abroad.”

Now with the attention on inclusion and diversity, Brown speaks about the changes that have occurred in the last couple of years. “Like many organizations, the racial justice protests that took place after the killing of George Floyd in 2020 forced us to take an honest look in the mirror. Since then, we have prioritized equity and inclusion in our operations and in our work. Reporters Committee staff formed a race equity working group to examine and update our organizational policies and improve our culture. With support from Borealis Philanthropy, we hired a legal fellow to focus on outreach to BIPOC news organizations and journalists to better understand their specific needs, to tailor training, and develop resources to meet them.”

Underlining how important and necessary their work is, Brown says in summation, “We’ll paraphrase one of our clients here, who described the Reporters Committee as lawyers who understand the mission of journalism and what’s at the heart of what journalists aspire to do. Nothing brings us as much satisfaction as seeing our efforts pay off in journalism being produced, whether it’s an article published, a news story broadcast, or a documentary released. We’re here to, at no cost to them, help journalists and news outlets better understand their legal rights, advocate for and assert those rights, and ultimately overcome the legal obstacles that can too often stand in between them and their ability to provide people with timely and meaningful information about their communities and our world.”