# Outreach Letter: Committee to Protect Journalists

**Date:** 22 November 2025
**To:** Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
**From:** Palimpsest Stewardship Council
**Subject:** Protecting Journalists' Work and Safety in the AI Training Era

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Dear Committee to Protect Journalists,

We write to you with profound respect for CPJ's four decades of defending press freedom worldwide, documenting attacks on journalists, advocating for imprisoned reporters, and providing emergency assistance to journalists in danger. Your work has been essential in ensuring that journalists can report without fear, and that press freedom remains a cornerstone of democratic societies.

## The Palimpsest License: Journalist Protection in the AI Era

The **Palimpsest License** addresses emerging threats to journalistic work and journalist safety in the age of artificial intelligence: the unconsented extraction of reporting for AI training, the potential for AI pattern analysis to compromise journalist and source safety, and the devaluation of journalistic labour when AI systems generate news content trained on professional journalism.

This intersects directly with CPJ's mission to protect journalists and defend press freedom.

## Why This Matters to Journalist Safety and Press Freedom

### 1. Unconsented Extraction of Journalistic Work
AI systems have been trained on:
- Decades of news archives from major and independent outlets
- Investigative reporting and long-form journalism
- Conflict zone and war correspondence
- Human rights documentation and witness testimony
- Photojournalism and documentary footage

This extraction occurs:
- Without individual journalist consent
- Without additional compensation beyond original publication fees
- Without preserving journalistic context, sourcing, or ethical frameworks
- Without considering safety implications for journalists or sources

### 2. Journalist Safety and AI Pattern Analysis
AI training on journalistic work creates novel safety risks:

**For Conflict Zone Reporters:**
- AI trained on war correspondence might identify patterns revealing embedded journalist locations
- Stylistic analysis could reveal pseudonymous journalist identities in dangerous areas
- Source protection methods might be inferred from reporting patterns

**For Investigative Journalists:**
- Long-term investigations might be compromised if AI reveals methodologies
- Confidential source protection could be undermined by pattern matching
- Journalistic "tradecraft" becomes exposed through AI training analysis

**For Journalists Under Authoritarian Regimes:**
- Distinctive writing styles might be identified despite pseudonyms
- Communication patterns with sources could be inferred
- Censorship evasion methods might be revealed through AI analysis

### 3. Source Protection and Attribution
Journalistic ethics require source protection. AI training complicates this:
- AI systems trained on journalism might inadvertently reveal sourcing patterns
- Attribution requirements must balance journalist credit with source confidentiality
- Metadata preservation must not compromise sources
- Consent mechanisms must account for source safety implications

### 4. Devaluation of Journalistic Labour
When AI trains on professional journalism:
- **Newsrooms use AI** to generate content, reducing journalist employment
- **Freelance rates drop** as editors claim AI reduces labour requirements
- **Investigative funding declines** when AI-generated "investigations" appear cheaper
- **Public trust erodes** when AI journalism lacks accountability and verification

This threatens the economic sustainability of journalism—a core press freedom concern.

## How Palimpsest Protects Journalists

### 1. Informed Consent with Safety Considerations
Journalists can specify:
- Whether their work may be used in AI training
- Safety restrictions (e.g., conflict zone reporting excluded)
- Time-delayed consent (allowing safe passage before training use)
- Pseudonym protection provisions

### 2. Source Protection in Attribution Mechanisms
Palimpsest's attribution requirements include:
- **Source confidentiality safeguards** – Attribution doesn't require compromising sources
- **Aggregate attribution** – Investigative teams credited without revealing individual journalist patterns
- **Time-delayed attribution** – Protecting journalist safety during ongoing investigations
- **Pseudonym preservation** – Maintaining anonymity where necessary for safety

### 3. Investigative Journalism Protection
Specific provisions for:
- **Methodology protection** – Preventing AI from revealing investigative techniques
- **Source pattern protection** – Avoiding exposure of sourcing methods
- **Ongoing investigation confidentiality** – Time-based consent allowing safe completion
- **Collective investigation credit** – Team attribution without compromising individual safety

### 4. Conflict Zone and Danger Reporting
Enhanced protections for:
- **War correspondence** – Safety-aware consent and attribution
- **Authoritarian regime reporting** – Pseudonym and pattern protection
- **Human rights documentation** – Witness and journalist safety paramount
- **Trauma reporting** – Ethical frameworks preventing exploitation

### 5. Economic Protections
Ensuring journalists benefit from AI use of their work:
- **Revenue sharing** when AI systems commercialise journalism-trained outputs
- **Collective bargaining support** for journalist unions and associations
- **Freelance journalist rights** retained regardless of publication agreements
- **Investigative funding** – Supporting costly journalism that AI cheapens

## Journalist Safety Case Studies

### War Correspondence
**Scenario:** A war correspondent's decade of conflict zone reporting is used to train an AI that generates "war reporting" and inadvertently reveals patterns about journalist safety practices, source networks, or embedded unit locations.

**Safety concern:** Journalist and source safety compromised.
**Palimpsest protection:** Conflict zone reporting requires enhanced consent with safety review, time delays, and pattern protection.

### Authoritarian Regime Reporting
**Scenario:** A journalist reporting under a pseudonym in an authoritarian state has their distinctive writing style used to train an AI. Stylistic analysis could reveal their identity to state security services.

**Safety concern:** Journalist imprisonment, torture, or death.
**Palimpsest protection:** Pseudonym protection, opt-out mechanisms, and safety-first consent frameworks.

### Investigative Source Protection
**Scenario:** A long-term investigation's reporting patterns are used to train an AI that infers sourcing methodologies, potentially compromising confidential sources on future investigations.

**Safety concern:** Source exposure and journalist-source relationship trust erosion.
**Palimpsest protection:** Investigative methodology protection, aggregate attribution, source confidentiality safeguards.

### Human Rights Documentation
**Scenario:** A journalist's human rights documentation—interviewing torture survivors, documenting war crimes—is used to train an AI that generates "human rights reporting" without ethical frameworks, potentially re-traumatising witnesses.

**Safety concern:** Witness protection and ethical journalism standards.
**Palimpsest protection:** Witness-protection aware consent, ethical use requirements, trauma-sensitive frameworks.

## Legal Framework

Palimpsest operates under:
- **Primary jurisdiction:** Netherlands (strong press freedom protections)
- **Enforcement:** Scottish courts + international arbitration
- **Bilingual:** Dutch + English (globally accessible)
- **Safety-first design:** Journalist and source protection paramount

The **Palimpsest Stewardship Council** welcomes journalist representative participation.

## Proposed Collaboration with CPJ

### 1. Journalist Safety and AI Training
Developing:
- **Safety assessment frameworks** for AI training consent
- **Risk mitigation strategies** for journalists in dangerous contexts
- **Pseudonym protection** best practices
- **Conflict zone reporting** special protections

### 2. Journalist Rights Education
Creating resources on:
- Understanding AI training and journalist rights
- Assessing safety risks in AI training consent
- Negotiating AI provisions in journalist contracts
- Collective bargaining for AI-era protections

### 3. Emergency Assistance
Exploring:
- Whether AI-related journalist safety risks warrant CPJ emergency response
- Documentation of AI-related journalist harassment or targeting
- Legal defence for journalists facing AI-related rights violations
- International advocacy for journalist AI rights

### 4. Press Freedom Advocacy
Collaborating on:
- **UN protection of journalists** – AI-era safety concerns
- **International press freedom organisations** – Coordinating on AI and journalism
- **National journalist protections** – Advocating for AI training rights in domestic law
- **Platform accountability** – AI training data transparency requirements

### 5. Economic Justice for Journalists
Supporting:
- **Fair compensation** for AI training on journalistic work
- **Freelance journalist rights** in AI-era contracts
- **Investigative journalism funding** threatened by AI-generated content
- **Newsroom collective bargaining** on AI training terms

## Global Press Freedom Implications

CPJ works globally, defending journalists in every region. AI training raises distinct challenges:

### Global South Journalism
- Extracting reporting without compensating underpaid journalists
- Appropriating local knowledge and community reporting
- Devaluing regional journalism with AI-generated substitutes
- Eroding local news economies essential for democratic accountability

### Independent and Alternative Media
- Training AI on independent journalism without supporting sustainability
- Commodifying alternative perspectives without community benefit
- Undercutting small newsroom viability with AI-generated content
- Homogenising diverse journalistic voices

### Minority and Indigenous Journalism
- Extracting culturally-specific reporting without community consent
- Stripping cultural context from indigenous media coverage
- Appropriating minority language journalism
- Exploiting diaspora journalism without community recognition

## Invitation to Collaboration

We would be honoured to work with the Committee to Protect Journalists to:

1. **Develop journalist safety frameworks** for AI training consent
2. **Create educational resources** for journalists worldwide
3. **Collaborate on press freedom advocacy** regarding AI and journalism
4. **Support emergency assistance** for AI-related journalist safety concerns
5. **Coordinate internationally** with journalist protection organisations globally

Would you be available for an initial conversation? We recognise CPJ's demanding work protecting journalists in crisis, and we are flexible regarding format—video conference, written exchange, or participation in relevant CPJ initiatives.

## Contact Information

**Palimpsest Stewardship Council**
Email: [contact information to be provided]
Repository: https://github.com/[repository-path]
Documentation: [documentation URL]

Thank you for your consideration. The Committee to Protect Journalists has demonstrated that press freedom requires both protecting journalists' physical safety and defending their right to report without fear. We aspire to extend those principles to the AI era, ensuring journalistic work is protected, journalist safety is paramount, and press freedom survives technological transformation.

In solidarity with journalists worldwide,

**The Palimpsest Stewardship Council**

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## Appendices Available Upon Request

- Full text of Palimpsest License v0.4 (English and Dutch)
- Journalist safety assessment framework for AI training
- Source protection provisions in attribution mechanisms
- Conflict zone and authoritarian regime reporting protections
- Economic justice frameworks for journalists
- International press freedom organisation collaboration proposals
