The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

based in Washington, D.C., that provides pro bono legal services and resources to and on behalf of

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

s. The organization pursues litigation, offers direct representation, submits ''amicus curiae'' briefs, and provides other legal assistance on matters involving the

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

, press freedom, freedom of information, and court access issues.

History

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 Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (, 1921 – , 2014) was an American journalist who served as managing editor, then as executive editor of ''The Washington Post'', from 1965 to 1991. He became a public figure when the ''Post'' joined ''The New Y ...

Tom Wicker Thomas Grey Wicker (June 18, 1926 – November 25, 2011) was an American journalist. He was a political reporter and columnist for ''The New York Times''. Background and education Wicker was born in Hamlet, North Carolina. He was a graduate ...

, and

Mike Wallace Myron Leon Wallace (May 9, 1918 – April 7, 2012) was an American journalist, game show host, actor, and media personality. He interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers during his seven-decade career. He was one of the original correspo ...

, 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 Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...

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 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', 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' 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', 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. 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', 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, and worked to expand the organization's pro bono legal services and resources. With the help of Legal Director Katie Townsend, who joined the organization in 2014, he has built a growing litigation practice that offers journalists and media organizations representation, amicus curiae support, 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 Freedom of information in the United States results from freedom of information legislation at the federal level and in the fifty states. Federal level The federal government is bound by several laws intended to promote openness in government. ...

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 is a complete compendium of information on every state's open records and open meetings laws. The Open Courts Compendium explains court access issues and provides specific additional information for each state and federal circuit. The Reporter's Privilege Compendium 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 Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...

. The organization also helped found the

U.S. Press Freedom Tracker Freedom of the press in the United States is legally protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. History Thirteen Colonies In the Thirteen Colonies before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the newspa ...

, and in 2018, published a report based on the tracker's data assessing the state of press freedom in the U.S. Other Reporters Committee resources include a digital interactive map documenting the policies governing public access to

police body camera In policing equipment, a body camera or wearable camera, also known as body-worn video (BWV), body-worn camera (BWC), or bodycam, is a wearable audio, video, or photographic recording system used by police to record events in which law enfo ...

footage in more than 100 police departments, and a record of federal cases since 1844 involving leaks of government information to the news media.

Key legal victories and impact

In the early years after its founding, the Reporters Committee was a plaintiff in several early test-case lawsuits, including efforts to seek access to 41 million of President Richard Nixon's White House documents and tapes, as well as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's official telephone transcripts. Other lawsuits sought access to FBI arrest records and to block telephone companies from giving secret access to media telephone records. 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 The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

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. 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. In 2016, the Reporters Committee and

Time Inc. Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...

filed a motion with the

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory comprises the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont. The court has appellate juri ...

to unseal documents from the 1999 class action lawsuit settlement regarding the construction of

Trump Tower Trump Tower is a 58-story, mixed-use skyscraper at 721–725 Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, between East 56th and 57th Streets. The building contains the headquarters for the Trump Organization, as well ...

. 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. In 2014, the Reporters Committee led an effort to unseal transcripts of witness testimony in a grand jury investigation of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

''. The newspaper ran a front-page story about the

Battle of Midway The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under ...

. The subsequent grand jury investigation of reporter

Stanley Johnston Stanley Johnston (1900 – September 13, 1962) was an Australian-American journalist who, as a correspondent during World War II, wrote a story for the ''Chicago Tribune'' that inadvertently revealed the extent of American code-breaking act ...

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 The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code (War ...

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. The Reporters Committee and the AP filed a lawsuit under the

for records around the FBI's policies for impersonation, and secured a victory in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017. In 2018, the Reporters Committee also filed a similar lawsuit over the FBI's impersonation of documentary filmmakers. Representing the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

in court, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press forced the partial release of the search warrant affidavit in the Senator

Richard Burr Richard Mauze Burr (born November 30, 1955) is an American businessman and politician who is the senior United States senator from North Carolina, serving since 2005. A member of the Republican Party, Burr was previously a member of the United S ...

insider trading investigation.

Notes

External links