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, the CAP program 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, please contact Natalie Southwick, nsouthwick@nycbar.org.
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
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