Vance Center’s Lawyers for Reporters Launches Compliance Assurance Program for News Outlets

New York, January 22, 2026 – The Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice through its Lawyers for Reporters initiative and in partnership with The Intercept’s Press Freedom Defense Fund is rolling out a new Compliance Assurance Program to help strengthen and protect local journalism across the United States.

The Compliance Assurance Program (CAP) will assess participating news outlets’ operations, identify concerns related to legal and regulatory compliance, and work with outlets to mitigate risks.

The unique program will involve Lawyers for Reporters’ team of in-house lawyers, who will review the outlets’ operations and governance and offer guidance on efficient strategies to minimize risks of noncompliance and improve business operations. The Press Freedom Defense Fund will continue to offer its expertise in digital and operational newsroom security and source protection protocol training. As needed, CAP will deploy pro bono attorneys in private practice across the country to ensure services are available broadly throughout the U.S.

The program is designed to respond to growing hostility toward fact-based journalism from public officials and private actors by helping news organizations access high-quality legal advice, understand risks, and strengthen protections. Through CAP, organizations will be able to avoid or navigate an audit, investigation, or complaint with reduced risk of legal exposure, reputational damage, or operational disruption.

“CAP is informed by the expertise Lawyers for Reporters has gained from representing hundreds of independent news publishers since 2020,” said Alexander Papachristou, Executive Director of the Vance Center. “The program is part of the Vance Center’s commitment to providing legal support to help ensure the survival and growth of local and independent news reporting, which every day becomes more essential to an informed public.”

“The project will strengthen the legal and operational resiliency of independent news organizations nationwide, allowing them to bolster their operations and continue their critical work by understanding and avoiding legal exposure,” said David Bralow, Director of The Intercept’s Press Freedom Defense Fund. “This is a critical complement to our sector-wide trainings and emergency grantmaking program.”

The Compliance Assurance Program addresses a basic but often-overlooked reality for independent media: the gap between the risks that regulatory requirements pose for small outlets and the outlets’ capacity to analyze and address them, often with minimal resources.

Publishers must comply with a complex list of regulatory requirements, and nonprofit news entities in particular face unique challenges in ensuring they comply with federal and state laws. Outlets that fail to meet these requirements can face consequences ranging from costly investigations and litigation to reputational damage or even loss of tax-exempt status.

Although strong governance and operational practices are essential to avoid such risks, many small and independent outlets do not have the resources to engage legal services or proactively identify and address exposure.

“CAP offers high quality expertise to review and help mitigate news outlets’ exposure so they can continue to produce meaningful journalism with the confidence they can weather regulatory scrutiny,” said Kay Murray, Managing Attorney at Lawyers for Reporters.

Participating organizations will have access to LFR’s in-house team and outside pro bono counsels’ expertise in laws regulating tax-exempt organizations, corporate governance, data privacy, data retention, and insurance. The team will review participating entities’ operations and governance, help them remedy identified issues, and enable them to implement efficient, workable systems to minimize risks and improve business operations.

LFR has developed a secure, confidential portal to simplify the risk assessment process.

Organizations interested in participating in CAP should contact capinquiries@nycbar.org. Organizations that are not already LFR clients will need to go through an additional screening and onboarding process.

For press inquiries, contact Natalie Southwick.

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About the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice

Established in 2002, the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice advances global justice by engaging lawyers across borders to support civil society and an ethically active legal profession. The Vance Center is a unique collaboration of in-house and private practice lawyers catalyzing public interest innovation to support reporting in the public interest, advance human rights and access to justice, protect the natural environment, and promote the rule of law and institutional integrity. A program of the New York City Bar Association, the Vance Center brings together leading law firms and other partners worldwide to pioneer domestic and international justice initiatives and provide pro bono legal representation to civil society organizations. In 2025, the Vance Center represented 193 clients in 299 matters, collaborating as co-counsel with hundreds of lawyers from 120 law firms across 87 countries.

The Vance Center launched its Lawyers for Reporters (LFR) program in March 2020 as a joint project with the Press Freedom Defense Fund to provide pro bono legal representation to independent news publishers, public interest reporting organizations, and journalism support organizations in the United States. Since its inception, LFR has represented more than 350 clients in 41 states and the District of Columbia.

About the Press Freedom Defense Fund

The Press Freedom Defense Fund is a cornerstone initiative of The Intercept, embodying the publication’s founding commitment to safeguard journalists facing persecution. Established in 2014 and revitalized in 2025, the Fund provides critical funding for legal assistance to journalists and whistleblowers targeted by governments and other powerful figures. The Press Freedom Defense Fund team brings together deep expertise in media law, investigative journalism, and information security with decades of experience in newsroom business and editorial operations.