The Reporters Committee maintains an interactive map of police body camera access policy and law across the United States. Check out this regularly modified feature, and send us your city and state updates.
What constitutes a waiver of the reporter’s privilege is largely unchartered territory for courts, leaving journalists with little case law to rely on when determining whether to respond to subpoenas.
This week a California federal court shed...
Determining whether a statement is a fact or opinion can make or break a defamation claim. Recently, two courts — the high court in Massachusetts and a federal district court in Virginia — dismissed defamation suits after ruling the...
Photographic evidence recently helped a New York trial judge find a New York City police officer guilty of fabricating a record to justify his arrest of a freelance photographer back in 2012.
Officer Michael Ackermann arrested New York Times...
California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law an act extending libel retraction and damages provisions to print and online publications.
Assembly Bill 998 replaces the term “newspaper” with “daily or weekly news publication.”...
Open-government advocates warned District of Columbia officials last week that exemption of all police body-worn camera footage showing "assaults" will undermine the very purpose of the program, as will other provisions designed to delay...
The Place to Start
The Digital Journalist's Legal Guide has the answers and links to Reporters Committee resources for all your questions about the legal issues involved in gathering and disseminating news.
FOIA Services
Find everything you need to file a public record request, including our federal and state Open Government Guides, and our Federal FOIA Appeals Guide. Or visit iFOIA.org, our FOIA request tracking system.
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To protect the right to gather and distribute news; to keep government accountable by ensuring access to public records, meetings and courtrooms; and to preserve the principles of free speech and unfettered press, as guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
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