Freelance reporter subpoenaed in connection with defamation suit

Freelance journalist Lily Dobrovolskaya was subpoenaed on Dec. 18, 2024, in connection with a defamation lawsuit filed in Florida federal court by an airline company. The request was struck down in March 2025.

Dobrovolskaya wrote a 2020 story about the company, Monarch Air Group, for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, an investigative journalism organization based in the Netherlands. Monarch subsequently sued Dobrovolskaya and OCCRP’s parent company — the Journalism Development Network — for defamation, alleging that the article insinuated Monarch was involved in criminal activity, and that the defendants knowingly left errors online for months after being alerted to falsehoods. Dobrovolskaya was later dismissed from the defamation suit.

The December subpoena initially requested a wide range of notes, interviews and other newsgathering materials related to Dobrovolskaya’s work on the story, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The subpoena was later narrowed, but still sought interviews with confidential sources, correspondence with a blogger and documents relating to a social media post by the journalist.

It also asked for Dobrovolskaya’s prepublication communications with the Miami Herald. The Herald had received its own legal order to turn over the materials in October 2024, which was struck down a month later.

The reporter, who lives in New York, filed a motion to set aside the subpoena on Jan. 16, 2025, in federal court in that state. She argued that the materials are privileged under the First Amendment and reporter’s shield laws in New York and Florida.

Monarch in a Jan. 31 response argued that the information it sought was crucial to its case and not subject to reporter’s shield laws. It also argued that Florida law should apply because most of Dobrovolskaya’s reporting focused on individuals and entities based in the state.

On Feb. 13, Judge Jennifer Rochon asked Dobrovolskaya whether she would agree to transfer her motion to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The journalist objected on Feb. 20, arguing that she lives and carried out her work in New York, and that the state’s reporter’s shield law provided her with stronger protections, especially regarding being forced to disclose confidential sources.

Rochon agreed to allow the case to remain in New York. On March 7, she struck down the subpoena, ruling that New York’s more robust shield law applied and that the materials sought by Monarch are privileged.

Dobrovolskaya and her attorney, Rachel Strom, did not respond to requests for comment.