CONTACT:
Matthew Hirsch
Freedom of Information Committee
Society of Professional Journalists – NorCal Chapter
Phone: (415) 749-5451
E-mail: mhirsch [AT] alm.com
The Society of Professional Journalists' Northern California chapter will recognize retired publisher David Mitchell with the Norman S. Yoffie Career Achievement Award at the 21st annual James Madison Freedom of Information Awards dinner next month. A fervent advocate of public records access throughout his career, Mitchell was editor and publisher of the Point Reyes Light for 30 years. In 1979, he won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the notorious Synanon cult.
Mitchell and 13 other winners will be honored March 16 at a banquet at Sinbad’s Restaurant on the San Francisco waterfront. KPIX-TV anchor Ken Bastida and Michael Krasny, host of KQED’s “Forum,” will emcee. Tickets are available by calling (415) 749-5451. Ticket prices are $50 for SPJ members, $65 for non-members and $40 for students.
Named for the creative force behind the First Amendment, the James Madison Freedom of Information Awards honor local journalists, organizations, public officials and private citizens who have fought for public access to government meetings and records and promoted the public’s right to know. Award winners are selected by the Freedom of Information Committee of the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
To reserve, please make checks payable to “SPJ – FOI Committee” and send payment to the following address:
SPJ – FOI Committee
c/o First Amendment Project
1736 Franklin Street, 9th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
Please include your name and the names of any guests with your payment, and note your choice of entrée, fish or vegetarian. For more information, contact Matthew Hirsch at (415) 749-5451 or mhirsch [AT] alm.com. RSVP BY WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8.
A complete list of the winners follows:
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NORWIN S. YOFFIE CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
David Mitchell
David Mitchell is best known for wining the Pulitzer Prize in 1979
for reporting on the Synanon cult. The cult sued Mitchell for defamation, a
tactic that had successfully staved off investigations by major media outlets
in the past. During the court case, the cult sought the identity of Mitchell’s
confidential sources within the cult and access to all other unpublished information.
Mitchell resisted and the resulting decision by the Court of Appeals remains
the leading case both locally and nationally for the common law protections
a reporter enjoys to protect sources.
BEVERLY KEES EDUCATOR AWARD
Paul Grabowicz
Paul Grabowicz directs the New Media Program at the U.C. Berkeley Graduate
School of Journalism and teaches classes in multimedia reporting, new media
publishing and computer assisted reporting. After a career spanning more than
25 years as a professional journalist, mostly as an investigative reporter at
the Oakland Tribune, Grabowicz has been teaching new generations of journalists
how to use the tools available and expand access to public information.
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE
Center for Investigative Reporting
In 2005, the Center for Investigative Reporting uncovered information
that’s hard to find and produced a steady stream of top-notch journalism,
much as it has done throughout CIR’s 29-year history. Its recent series,
No Place to Hide, recounts how the government and industry increasingly collect
information about private citizens.
CARTOONIST
Mark Fiore
Mark Fiore, whose animations appear on SFGate.com and other news Web
sites, is redefining what it means to be a cartoonist in the age of the Internet.
Fiore routinely uses his medium to needle government officials who operate behind
a shroud of secrecy.
JOURNALIST (4 winners)
Vanessa Hua, San Francisco Chronicle
In pursuing a story about the crossover between political fund-raising
and government grants to non-profits, Vanessa Hua followed a trail of documents
— obtained under the California Public Records Act, campaign filing forms,
assessor and property tax records — to uncover a trail of money that eventually
led to former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley’s doorstep. In part because
of Hua’s reporting, Shelley stepped down from office and the San Francisco
Board of Supervisors gave a fresh look at nonprofit oversight.
Tanya Schevitz & Todd Wallack, San Francisco Chronicle
In response to a University of California proposal seeking to solicit
money from private donors to increase the salaries of top university administrators,
Tanya Schevitz and Todd Wallack uncovered irregularities in the university’s
hiring practices and found that the university was not being honest with its
own Board of Regents about how much top officials were paid. Among other things,
Schevitz and Wallack’s persistence has already led to the resignation
of U.C. Provost M. R. C. Greenwood and reform measures by the university.
Barry Witt, San Jose Mercury News
Using the California Public Records Act, Barry Witt obtained e-mails
and memos detailing internal discussions between San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales
and the city manager’s staff regarding a secret deal for garbage disposal.
The Mercury News then published copies of all relevant e-mails and memos, both
the private documents that revealed the true reason for a garbage rate hike
approved in 2003 and those that contained the false public reasons, in the newspaper
and on its Web site. Gonzales became the first San Jose mayor to be censured
for misleading the public in his actions related to the secret garbage pact,
and soon afterward the saga forced City Manager Del Bergsdorf to resign.
Dion Nissenbaum, San Jose Mercury News
Dion Nissenbaum discovered the existence of something called the California
National Guard Information Synchronization, Knowledge Management and Intelligence
Fusion program. He obtained documentary evidence that the unit was tracking
protesters at an anti-war rally, but the National Guard denied that and covered
its tracks at the same time. Members of Congress and the state Legislature became
so concerned that the state might be spying on innocent civilians that the program
was dismantled within six months of when the first story appeared in print.
LEGAL COUNSEL
Peter Scheer
Peter Scheer, the executive director of the California First Amendment
Coalition, aggressively developed strategies to define and expand the scope
of Proposition 59, California's landmark open-government initiative, which Scheer
helped bring before the voters. Later, he sued Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and
won access to the governor's appointments calendar, thereby putting pressure
on politicians up and down the state to open up their calendars too. He also
developed a public records request template and made it available on the CFAC
Web site, www.cfac.org. And in a separate legal action, Scheer negotiated a
settlement with CalPERS, the nation's largest pension fund, to allow the public
for the first time to know how much it pays venture capitalists and hedge fund
managers and how well these investments perform.
NEWS MEDIA (2 winners)
Marin Independent Journal
Last year, the Marin Independent Journal filed a public records request
to obtain information about Marin County’s generous and costly public
retirement plan. The county turned down the IJ’s request, but rather than
duke it out in court the newspaper assigned a reporter to investigate the pension
plan. As a result, the IJ and reporter Keri Brenner produced a powerful series
explaining how the retirement system works.
KGO-TV
Dan Noyes, Beth Rimbey, Ken Miguel and the local ABC News investigative
unit used public documents to reveal in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina that there are serious problems with San Francisco’s emergency
disaster plan. In the last year, the ABC I-Team has also shown that while the
Oakland school district is under state control because of financial mismanagement,
school officials still managed to budget for a weekend retreat at an exclusive
Santa Cruz resort.
ONLINE FREE SPEECH
CNET News.com
CNET helped make the question of whether bloggers should be viewed
as journalists a national political issue. CNET stuck with the story throughout
the year, contributing excellent reporting and valuable commentary from CNET
staff and key figures in the debate, such as Congressman John Conyers.
PUBLIC OFFICIAL
Dr. Tom Campbell & Elizabeth Patterson
In 2003, Benicia councilmember and former vice mayor Elizabeth Patterson
and Dr. Tom Campbell, a former councilmember, helped create a Sunshine Committee
that has grown into a movement for open government. Through the committee, Campbell
and Patterson helped draft a Sunshine ordinance for Benicia, modeled on the
Sunshine ordinance in Oakland. That ordinance was approved by a 4-1 vote last
summer.
SPECIAL CITATION
ANG, The Argus, Barry Shatzman, Duffy Carolan
The Freedom of Information Committee received a flurry of nominations
this year for the Alameda Newspaper Group of Bay Area newspapers, its individual
reporters and their attorney, Duffy Carolan, who represents ANG when it goes
to court on behalf of the public’s right to know. ANG, Carolan, The Fremont
Argus and its staff set a model for how the media should act in the face of
government secrecy.
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