Freelance Investigative Reporters and Editors (FIRE) strengthens investigative reporting by providing customized editorial assistance, and, since 2021, by helping freelancers and outlets to negotiate defamation liability via the following tools and services:

FIRE Legal Consultancy—addresses a freelancer's particular vulnerabilities with an outlet on a story

FIRE Contract Template—model protective agreement drafted by former Bloomberg News Global Media Counsel Charles Glasser, to safely commission a story or modify an existing contract

FIRE Guide to Freelancer Protection—evaluates the liability practices at 20 major outlets to show who's promising protection—the first reliable intelligence across multiple outlets, to facilitate comparison

FIRE Liability Tipsheets—detailed expert guidance on defamation exposure, contractual vulnerabilities, and negotiation options, in one-page briefs coverning two dozen topics, including

• the surprisingly limited reasons a freelancer may want to buy personal media insurance
• the alternate reasons to arrange protection under an outlet's media insurance
• how a freelancer can arrange such protection, e.g.,
  • what a reporter should never promise
  • what protection should look like on the page
  • how a reporter might approach an outlet about protection
• why a publisher or broadcaster might want to protect freelancers as they do staff reporters 
• how easy it is for a willing outlet to cover an independent reporter under the outlet's insurance

To view the latest successes of these resources, view News.