After two days of conversation on tackling threats to watchdog journalists worldwide and fostering the kind of innovation necessary to sustain investigative reporting, conference participants met in break-out sessions to identify next steps.

Toward the goal of countering legal threats to investigative journalists, participants put forward the following four recommendations:

• Create an online portal for journalists’ rights. This would be geared in particular toward providing a resource for online and new media journalists to find information about their rights in various countries and in various situations.
• Establish a task force on the issue of media insurance. Given the difficulty of new media companies and those in countries where journalism is still developing to get insurance, look for creative vehicles for providing libel and liability insurance to allow reporters to pursue their work robustly.
• Develop an organized approach to providing pro bono legal support for investigative journalists worldwide.
• Begin a global conversation on the abuse of privacy laws as a legal threat to the work of investigative journalists. This is an emerging problem in the U.S., where the Privacy Act is being used against journalists, and in other countries where privacy laws are becoming vehicles for suppression, censorship and even jailing of journalists.

With regard to addressing the physical and psychological threats to investigative journalists, participants made the following recommendations.

• Develop studies and training geared to the specific ways that investigative journalists are targeted and attacked. Much of the existing training for journalists is geared toward combat situations, and does not reflect the reality of how journalists are targeted. Study and evaluate incidents of attack, and draw out training specific to situations investigative journalists may encounter.
• Create an advocacy group made up of investigative journalists to engage with threats faced by colleagues around the world. This group would foster a culture of citizen activism among journalists in support of colleagues.

In the areas of creating new cross-border collaborations and funding models for investigative journalists, participants made the following recommendations:

• Foster experimentation in finding new and sustainable funding models and revenue streams for investigative journalism. Foundations cannot be the primary support for investigative journalism. The focus should be on creating new business models-perhaps with the participation of business schools-and expanding the pool of potential funders, whether through wealthy individual donors, foundations, or online contributors.
• Help people who are starting new investigative journalism organizations tap the resources that already exist by building a resource center or a toolkit, online or in print. For those starting new non-profit and for-profit media organizations, encourage them to make use of others’ past experience, and share knowledge of what works and what doesn’t.
• Create a consulting group for those who are interested in forming new investigative news centers. Consultants could help provide business expertise, or evaluate the business plans of journalists and others who are forging new organizations. A consulting group could provide expertise not only in how to build non-profit or for-profit centers, but also in the area of technological expertise, for example in initiatives like micro-financing.
• Organize efforts to help funders understand why fostering investigative journalism is important, given the increasingly crucial role of the press.
• Educate the public about why paying for content is important, even if it is a small amount.
• Understand the audiences of investigative journalism organizations, and work with them in order to maximize the impact of watchdogging.
• Join discussions with Google and other major aggregators on the importance of revenue for the sources of content, like newspapers.