For a 12-person nonprofit newsroom investigating forced labor, human-rights abuses and environmental wrongdoing across the world’s oceans, a legal threat can become more than a distraction. It can become an existential financial risk. That is why The Outlaw Ocean Project joined Reporters Shield.
“You have to be tenacious because it could deter you from pursuing something if you’re in fear of litigation,” said Susan Ryan, the project’s operations and investigations editor. “Not just distracting you from your day-to-day work, but actually financially resulting in you closing down.”
Ryan said Reporters Shield provides an important extra layer of support, including pre-publication review, for an organization whose investigations can take years and challenge powerful interests. “Things like that are really essential to help you add another layer of your editorial checks,” she said.
Reporting where others cannot easily go
The Outlaw Ocean Project reports on a world that most news organizations rarely reach: the two-thirds of the planet covered by water.
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the nonprofit newsroom investigates human rights, labor, environmental and food-chain issues connected to the world’s oceans. Its reporting has taken readers into industries and places that often operate far from public scrutiny—and far from the practical reach of traditional journalism.
“Our remit is essentially the world’s oceans,” said Susan Ryan, the organization’s operations and investigations editor. “Although we are headquartered in D.C., we very much have a global outlook on the types of stories that we cover.”
Those stories can involve people who work on the ocean, communities living alongside it, or the global systems that put food on tables around the world. The work is often long-term, complex and high-risk. Some investigations take years before the newsroom is ready to publish.
“We do very long, detailed investigations that could take years to actually research and report,” Ryan said. “It could take four years for us to actually research a project before we’re prepared to publish it.”
The Outlaw Ocean Project partners with publications around the world, including The New Yorker, Le Monde and El País. It also reaches audiences through documentaries, podcasts and art projects, including murals inspired by its reporting.
But the reporting itself can present serious logistical—and legal—challenges.
Why investigative reporting carries risk
Investigating abuses connected to the ocean is not like covering a city council meeting or a local court hearing. The sources, evidence and subjects may be geographically remote, physically difficult to access or deliberately hidden from public view.
“A lot of what we report are about situations or information that some people don’t want to be known,” Ryan said. “They’re also in situations that are hard to access, whether it’s geographically hard to access because they’re actually happening at sea, or because of the issues within a particular industry.”
In many cases, the work takes journalists offshore, where they may be trying to meet people on the high seas or report on industries that operate behind closed doors. Those challenges make the reporting more time-consuming and raise the stakes for every editorial decision.
The organization’s investigations into forced labor have drawn congressional attention and prompted legal petitions seeking sanctions against seafood companies. When reporting has the potential to create that kind of public-policy consequence, Ryan said, the answer is not to avoid the story. It is to make sure the journalism is deeply researched, carefully documented and transparent about its methodology.
“You have to just make sure that everything that you’re doing is deeply researched, triple, quadruple checked,” she said. “You have to be very thorough in not just what you’re reporting, but in how you’ve reported it and in the methodology that you’ve used.”
Transparency as an editorial safeguard
For The Outlaw Ocean Project, that rigor extends beyond the final story. The newsroom works to explain how it found the information behind its investigations, both for readers and for anyone who wants to understand or examine its reporting process.
“That’s something that we’ve tried to be very transparent about with the public and with our readers,” Ryan said. “We do try to say, ‘This is how we found the information.’”
That approach serves the newsroom’s editorial mission, but it also strengthens its legal footing. Thorough reporting, careful editing and clear methodology are critical when powerful people or companies may challenge the work.
Still, even the best reporting does not eliminate risk. Companies examined by the project have publicly threatened litigation. For a small nonprofit newsroom, the possibility of legal action can be more than a distraction. It can become an existential threat.
“You have to be tenacious because it could deter you from pursuing something if you’re in fear of litigation or you’re in fear of the threat of legal action,” Ryan said. “Not just distracting you from your day-to-day work, but actually financially resulting in you closing down.”
An additional layer of protection
The Outlaw Ocean Project is a team of 12. While it is not a one-person operation, Ryan noted that many journalists and small investigative teams have even fewer resources. For them, the prospect of expensive litigation—or simply the uncertainty surrounding it—can influence whether a difficult story is pursued or even pitched.
That is one reason the organization joined Reporters Shield, a membership program designed to help independent journalists and news organizations manage legal risk.
“We would turn to the likes of Reporters Shield,” Ryan said. “That’s part of why we were keen to become a member, because they have such a wealth of knowledge on this specifically.”
For The Outlaw Ocean Project, one of the most valuable elements is access to pre-publication review. It adds another set of informed eyes before a difficult investigation is released.
“They offer things like pre-publication review,” Ryan said. “Things like that are really essential to help you add another layer of your editorial checks and make sure that everything is all clear before you actually go ahead and publish it.”
Ryan is candid that membership has not changed the project’s fundamental editorial posture. Its journalists were already committed to pursuing stories they believed were thoroughly reported and ready for publication.
“I don’t know if I have seen a change in the confidence,” she said. “Beforehand, that was our attitude anyway—in that if something was to be reported and we were sure about the reporting, we would pursue it.”
But that does not diminish the value of having additional support available. For freelance journalists and very small teams, the ability to call on legal resources can be the difference between moving forward and walking away. “It can be a huge impetus for them to actually continue something or to even pitch a story to an editor,” Ryan said. “With Reporters Shield, we feel like we have an organization at our back. If something does happen, we have resources to call on.”
Planning for the cost of legal risk
Ryan said the legal environment for journalists is becoming more difficult internationally, with increased litigation, threats of legal action and injunctions intended to silence reporting. For nonprofit newsrooms, which often lack the resources of larger commercial organizations, a legal threat can quickly become a budget crisis.
“As a nonprofit, you just don’t have the same kind of resources you might have if you’re a bigger newsroom or you’re a purely commercial outfit,” she said. “Being able to plan your insurance coverage and your possible legal support around a specific budget is absolutely crucial to you continuing in operation.”
The Outlaw Ocean Project has not had to call on Reporters Shield’s resources since becoming a member. Ryan considers that fortunate. But with a major project planned for the coming year, she said the team is glad to know support is available if needed.
“We’re going to be very glad just to have an extra resource in the closet in case we need to draw on that,” she said.
For Ryan, the message to other nonprofit and investigative newsrooms is simple: reach out, ask questions and understand the protection available before the pressure arrives. “I’d say definitely reach out to them and have a conversation,” she said. “They’re very approachable.”
More importantly, she added, newsrooms should consider what legal preparation can mean for their capacity to challenge powerful interests and publish the stories their audiences need. “It could really bolster your ability to report the news that you need to report on,” Ryan said.
About Reporters Shield:
Reporters Shield is an independent, nonprofit membership organization that defends investigative and public-interest journalism from legal threats designed to silence critical reporting. Serving print, digital, and nonprofit newsrooms globally, the organization provides legal support and resources to help journalists publish with confidence. It was developed by investigative journalists and media lawyers, with support from leading legal institutions and funders committed to defending press freedom.
For more information, contact info@reporters-shield.org.
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