Liability success now in 25 of 27 cases
FIRE helped freelancer Zach Dorfman
report a sensitive national security story
Last year we reported that FIRE's rate of successful interventions to help freelancers secure liability protection had reached 19 of 21 cases.
This year we were called in another six times and secured six more successes—for the freelancers and the oulets working with them.
Both sides used FIRE's pro bono Legal Consultancies and FIRE Contract Template to remove the reporter's liability exposure on particular commissioned stories.
Of the 25 renegotiated stories, 23 have already published, some of them listed here.
We expect more to come. The recently launched FIRE Guide to Freelancer Protection, which transparently analyzes which major publishers and broadcasters promise liability protections, provides ourlets with an incentive to take responsibility for stories—and a tool to do so.
Two of the publishers that successfully renegotiated stories above—New Hampshire Public Radio and 100Reporters—voluntarily incorporated key changes in their template contracts afterward.
With their new promises to subsequent freelancers, the outlets attained the highest rating in FIRE's Guide, "Green," alongside only Mother Jones, the Guardian, and Science, among the 20 outlets evaluated.