Micah Ratner

Senior Assistant General Counsel and Data Protection Officer

NPR

Micah Ratner serves as the Senior Assistant General Counsel and Data Protection Officer at NPR, where his responsibilities include counseling and training newsroom and entertainment programming divisions on legal and journalism ethics issues, as well as supervising First Amendment litigation.

Prior experience includes roles as Assistant General Counsel and Counsel at NPR, and as Senior Media Associate at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, where litigation focus encompassed defamation, copyright, and privacy cases. Additionally, Micah Ratner is a lecturer in Journalism Law & Ethics at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland. Education includes a Doctor of Law (J.D.) from American University Washington College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Participating Sessions

One Step Ahead: Protecting Stories and Sources in a Shifting Legal Landscape

In recent months, the Trump Administration has eliminated long standing legal protections that shielded the notes and records of reporters in investigations of government leaks. Coupled with the dismantling of offices once charged with protecting whistleblowers from retaliation, the moves signal a wider climate of legal uncertainty for investigative filmmakers and reporters alike. This panel explores emerging risks—from leak investigations to defamation and surveillance—affecting anyone tackling controversial topics or powerful...