Reporters Shield: Protecting Journalists and Media Outlets Against Predatory Litigation
In recent years, the global community has witnessed a rise in Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), a strategy of tying journalists up in litigation to drain the financial resources of journalists and their affiliated newsrooms, if applicable. These lawsuits have seen a particular uptick in Europe; in 2017, Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was facing 47 civil and criminal libel suits. She was murdered by a car bomb shortly thereafter. These lawsuits aim to stifle journalists' reporting on matters of public interest, effectively silencing their voices and deterring future independent journalism.
In response to this growing threat, Reporters Shield emerged as a new organization dedicated to safeguarding journalists and media outlets worldwide from SLAPPs. Founder and director Peter Noorlander previously worked for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which played a crucial role in spearheading this initiative. “I remember talking to [OCCRP] about [Reporters Shield] as long ago as 10 years ago,” said Noorlander. “It's a project that's been really long in the making.”
Reporters Shield adopts a “three-pronged approach” to fulfill its mission of protecting media outlets at high risk of litigation due to their reporting. The first is prevention, where lawyers review investigative pieces before publication, as investigative journalism is at a higher risk of attracting lawsuits. The major piece of guidance the organization offers during these reviews is how to neutralize language that could be construed legally as inflammatory in keeping with the laws of the nation that the journalist is writing about. Additionally, Reporters Shield provides training on basic media law to members, enabling them to better identify when their own pieces are in danger of attracting SLAPPs.
Response—the second tenet of Reports Shield—comes into play if the journalist or newsroom is sued despite prevention measures. Legal experts from Reporters Shield, who are fully paid for by the initiative, draft and file responses to the court on behalf of the media outlet. Considering that most of these lawsuits are baseless and are filed for the sole sake of harassment, most lawyers can get a judge to dismiss these lawsuit altogether. “There's an element there of us saying, ‘We'll take the stress out of it for you,’” said Noorlander.
In the event that the claim proceeds to trial, Reporters Shield takes charge of the third prong: defense. The organization identifies qualified lawyers outside of the organization and covers their costs to represent the outlet. By taking on the responsibility of legal battles, the organization provides a sense of security to its members.
However, not all media outlets are eligible for membership with Reporters Shield. Prospective members must be legally registered with the appropriate state offices. They must also engage in investigative journalism, which would put them in danger of SLAPPs. Finally, they must publish their work either in print or online (or both) and have a clear code of ethics. Noorlander noted that some outlets were not welcome to join the program. “I’ll tell you what we don’t want. There are some journalism outlets—and I use that word with some hesitation—that engage in attack journalism,” he said. "Those would fall below the minimum criteria that we have in terms of journalistic ethics.” However, “anybody that does meet those criteria, we're very happy to have them as members,” he clarified.
Members must pay an annual fee that is determined by the outlet's size, past history of lawsuits, and the cost of a lawyer in the country the newsroom is operating in. This money goes directly toward covering the costs of the lawyers hired by the organization.
Currently, Reporters Shield is accepting applications in South America, North America, Europe, and Central Asia. Interested outlets can submit an application via a Google Form, which is then reviewed by the Reporters Shield team. The team assesses the fit of the outlet for membership and determines the annual fee accordingly. “We publicly launched a couple of weeks ago, but we immediately got a good few dozen applications in,” said Noorlander. “So we already have a backlog we want to process as quickly as possible.”
Reporters Shield, despite being a new organization, already has its eyes on growth. “What we want to do, but we don't yet have the funding to do, is to offer a more advanced level of media law training,” said Noorlander. “We're not going to turn journalists into media lawyers, but some of them might want to educate themselves to a higher level.”
“[Reporters Shield] is like a mutual aid society, and it operates as a defense fund, which is paid into by a large number of individuals. The more people that pay into it, the stronger that fund will be,” continued Noorlander. “There's an element of solidarity in that. You're protecting the entire journalism community and everybody else, and you’re also insuring against the future.”
Thankfully, organizations like Reporters Shield offer much-needed resources to care for journalists and newsrooms in a time where both revenue is declining and press freedom worldwide is in trouble. But will these defenses be enough to ward off persistent bad actors? Either way, more resources and, should we be so lucky, more laws are needed to protect journalists.
