Gillian Vernick joins Reporters Committee as Technology and Press Freedom Project Legal Fellow
Gillian Vernick recently joined the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press as the newest member of the organization’s Technology and Press Freedom Project team.
In her role, Gillian focuses on issues at the intersection of technology and press freedom, including protecting reporter-source confidentiality and the moderation and regulation of content. She is a regular contributor to the TPFP team’s newsletter, This Week in Technology + Press Freedom.
“I think that going forward, journalists are only going to be relying more and more on technology, so I think it’s imperative to really strengthen those rights surrounding the right to record and the privacy of your sources and the privacy of your confidential communications with those sources,” Gillian said. “It’s really going to be important to have strong laws to protect journalists online.”
Having studied journalism while an undergraduate, Gillian originally thought that she would become a reporter. Instead, she decided to attend law school in hopes of supporting and defending journalists as a media attorney.
“I still really love writing and reporting and current events, and I really wanted to stay in that area of interest,” Gillian said. “I thought the perfect overlap would be working somewhere like the Reporters Committee.”
Gillian graduated from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland in 2017. She then attended Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law, where she was a member of the Drexel Law Review. During law school, she also interned with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Maryland Court of Appeals.
She graduated cum laude this past May before joining the Reporters Committee.
Gillian Vernick is not admitted to practice law.
The Reporters Committee regularly files friend-of-the-court briefs and its attorneys represent journalists and news organizations pro bono in court cases that involve First Amendment freedoms, the newsgathering rights of journalists and access to public information. Stay up-to-date on our work by signing up for our monthly newsletter and following us on Twitter or Instagram.
Photo by Anna G. Bahn