PLENA Journalism Source Protection
Chain-of-custody receipts for the material a source gives a journalist — that survive the journalist's death and the publication's closure. Built for investigative journalists, the sources who entrust them with material, and the press-freedom organizations defending both — with cryptographic anchoring that outlasts any single institution.
Opening problem
Investigative journalism depends on chain-of-custody integrity for source material. The current best practice is ad-hoc: SecureDrop for transmission, encrypted storage on journalist devices, physical handoff when warranted. None of these produces a receipt that survives the journalist's death, the publication's closure, or government seizure of equipment. Decades-long investigations (the Pentagon Papers archive, the Snowden documents, the Panama Papers, the Pandora Papers) require evidentiary infrastructure that outlasts the journalists themselves.
PLENA Journalism Source Protection provides the witnessed-chain-of-custody receipt layer that complements SecureDrop's transmission infrastructure and C2PA's content provenance. It is distinct from PLENA Whistleblower Documentation (which is built for the whistleblower's own infrastructure); this product is the journalist's receipt of what was received, from whom (within source-protection constraints), under what conditions, with what verification.
Five workflows PlenaProof covers
Source Communication Chain-of-Custody
Receipt of what was received, when, through what channel, with what initial verification. Source identity protected; the receipt attests to the receipt event without identifying the source.
Material Authentication Refresh
Periodic re-attestation that the material remains in the journalist's custody and has not been altered.
Editorial-Review Attestation
Receipt of the editorial review process applied to the material before publication.
Publication and Correction Continuity
Receipts of what was published, when, with what changes, with what corrections subsequently issued.
Multi-Successor Handover Architecture
Designated-releaser architecture allowing the material to pass to successor journalists, attorneys, or press-freedom organizations if the journalist becomes unable to continue.
Institutional version
Target partners: Committee to Protect Journalists; Reporters Without Borders; ICIJ; OCCRP; Knight Foundation; Freedom of the Press Foundation; investigative-journalism programs at Columbia, Berkeley, Nieman Foundation; press-freedom legal defense organizations (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press).
Same complement-not-replace disclaimer. PlenaProof does not provide source anonymity, protect against state-actor surveillance, adjudicate defamation, or constitute press credentials. It produces the receipt layer the journalist controls.
The 100-Year Operating Commitment
Investigative archives outlast the journalists who built them. Where actually implemented and populated, the intended architecture replicates each artifact across multiple independent archives and anchors it cryptographically to public records that do not depend on any single jurisdiction, and verifiable offline by the journalist or their designated successor. Receipts survive the multi-decade arc of investigations.
Why this differs
SecureDrop is transmission infrastructure. C2PA is content provenance metadata. PLENA Journalism Source Protection is the witnessed receipt layer between them, surviving the failure of any one platform.
Existing instruments this complements
- Shield laws (US state-by-state, federal limited)
- EU Whistleblower Directive (where journalist-source overlap applies)
- UNESCO journalist-safety guidelines
- Committee to Protect Journalists methodology
What this does not do
PLENA Journalism Source Protection does not provide source anonymity (SecureDrop does that better). It does not protect against state-actor surveillance of the journalist's communications. It does not adjudicate publication-defamation claims. It does not constitute press credentials.
Languages
Launches in PLENA's 8 live languages. Reviewer priorities follow general site-wide priorities. Contact hello@joinplena.com for translator inquiries.
Related PLENA receipt grammar
For press-freedom organizations and investigative-journalism programs
CPJ, RSF, ICIJ, OCCRP, FPF, Knight; Columbia, Berkeley, Nieman; Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press: PlenaProof welcomes pilot conversations.