Together, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Microsoft Corp., the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Davis Wright Tremaine — four leaders in their respective fields — are teaming up to expand the Protecting Journalists Pro Bono Program (ProJourn) after a pilot phase and landscape study demonstrating the critical need for increased legal support for local journalism.
ProJourn is an innovative approach to providing journalists — small news organizations, nonprofit newsrooms, documentary filmmakers and freelancers no-cost legal help with pre-publication review and public records access.
The initiative, piloted in Washington and California in 2020 and 2021 by premier U.S. law firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLP and Microsoft, brings together teams of seasoned media attorneys and corporate in-house counsel to build the bench of legal support and meet the growing needs of local journalists.
Operated by the Reporters Committee, ProJourn will grow into a network of law firms and corporate legal departments that could handle up to 300 legal matters each year, with an estimated annual value of $3.5 million in pro bono services by the end of 2024.