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Guidelines | Crisis-ready Journalism: Anticipating Legal Threats & Strategic Responses
The guidelines are also available in Spanish, Portuguese, and French.
Investigative journalism has always been a dangerous job, but with threats to the rule of law across the globe, as well as an increased prevalence and acceptance of misinformation, the work of investigative journalists has become both more critical and more dangerous than ever. Journalists and newsrooms regularly face new tactics aimed at limiting their ability to report, which are often specific to their country of operation and can range from: lawsuits meant to intimidate, silence, or bankrupt them; official measures to constrain the activities and even the existence of independent media; and prosecution and detention based on fabricated claims. These attacks threaten the personal safety, liberty, reputations, and financial security of journalists and editors, publishers, and media owners.
The threat of legal or physical retaliation for reporting on matters of public interest undermines the journalism profession and thus civil society and democratic governance.
The Vance Center’s Public Interest Reporting Program regularly receives requests for legal assistance from journalists and independent media organizations around the world facing existing or imminent threats from governments or powerful interests or individuals, stemming from their published or planned reporting. These threats pose significant challenges for those committed to independent journalism.
In response to these requests and the growing threat landscape, we have developed these guidelines, highlighting three practical strategies to help investigative journalists and newsrooms anticipate and respond to several kinds of legal threats. The guidelines cover:
- Avoiding defamation and related claims
- Legal documentation
- Relocation, corporate formation, and tax exemption
Download the guidelines here
The Vance Center developed these guidelines with the generous support of UNESCO’s Global Media Defence Fund*.
*The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout these guidelines do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
The Vance Center is responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this publication and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization.