FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 12, 2007
CONTACT
Matthew Hirsch
Freedom of Information Committee
Society of Professional Journalists, NorCal Chapter
Phone: (415) 749-5451
E-mail: mhirsch [AT] alm.com
SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS TO HONOR AWARD RECIPIENTS AT MARCH 13 AWARDS DINNER
The Society of Professional Journalists’ Northern California chapter will honor four Bay Area journalists who have waged separate campaigns to resist government subpoenas in defense of the First Amendment right to freedom of the press. As freelance journalists Josh Wolf and Sarah Olson, and San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams discovered, government officials over the past year have aggressively challenged journalists’ rights to protect confidential sources and refuse testimony in court proceedings that would undermine the independent free press. To date, Wolf has spent over four months in an East Bay federal prison in an effort to shield his unpublished video footage from a federal grand jury.
Other Madison Award winners include Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician who blew the whistle on the federal government’s warrantless wiretapping program; reporters at four northern California newspapers who broke major stories in 2006 using public records; and student journalists at Lowell High School in San Francisco.
These Madison Award winners will be recognized March 13 at Biscuits and Blues restaurant near San Francisco’s Union Square district. Visit www.spj.org/norcal or call (415) 749-5451 for ticket information or more details.
The James Madison Freedom of Information Awards is named for the creative force behind the First Amendment. The 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 Society of Professional Journalists’ Northern California chapter.
Background information, including a complete list and a description of winners, is attached.
The following is a complete list of 2007 James Madison Freedom of Information Award Winners:
NORWIN S. YOFFIE CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Rowland “Reb” Rebele
Rowland Rebele, the former publisher of community newspapers and an
unflagging advocate of independent journalism and open-government, is a First
Amendment mensch. When budget cuts threatened to shut down student journalism
in Oakland's public schools a few years ago, Rebele wrote a check to keep the
presses running. A devoted alumnus of Stanford University, he has endowed a
novel internship program at the university's journalism department, benefiting
both students and understaffed newspapers in California. And as a long-time
director of the California First Amendment Coalition, Rebele has been CFAC's
guiding hand and primary benefactor.
BEVERLY KEES EDUCATOR AWARD
Robert Ovetz
Schools are places of learning, and art schools are places for learning
expression. But when students at the privately owned Art Institute of California
in San Francisco wanted to publish a short story dealing with racism in the
school’s cultural magazine, school administrators blocked its publication
and fired Dr. Robert Ovetz, an adjunct instructor who protested the censorship.
He defended the students and educated them about their First Amendment rights,
efforts that led administrators to reverse course and allow the magazine to
be published – though they have not welcomed Ovetz back to the school.
CITIZEN
Ryan McKee
Last spring Ryan McKee, a student at Pasadena City College and a volunteer
with the nonprofit Californians Aware, announced the results of a statewide
public records audit. The audit tested how 31 state agencies responded to requests
under the California Public Records Act. Results showed that many of these agencies
struggled to fully comply with the law. McKee’s work prompted widespread
media coverage and inspired several newspapers around the state to conduct public
records audits of their own.
JOURNALIST (4 winners)
Michele Marcucci & Rebecca Vesely, ANG Newspapers
ANG Newspapers last July published an expose on the substandard care
received by some of California’s most vulnerable residents, people with
autism, mental retardation and other developmental disabilities living in private
care homes. Because many records generated by regional nonprofit care centers
are not publicly accessible, reporters Michele Marcucci and Rebecca Vesely compiled
information for 300 local homes piece by piece, then developed their own database
to analyze what they found. The resulting series, called “Broken Homes,”
led state officials to resume annual inspections of these licensed care facilities,
a practice that had ceased at one point due to budgetary constraints.
Andrew McIntosh & John Hill, Sacramento Bee
The California Highway Patrol is one of the largest and most respected
of the nation’s law enforcement agencies. At the same time, it is one
of the state’s largest bureaucracies, a distinction that led Sacramento
Bee reporters John Hill and Andrew McIntosh to launch a wide-ranging investigation
of the CHP. The two sifted through reams and megabytes of public records for
a series of stories that exposed fraud and abuse in the vast agency and drew
calls from the Legislature for reform.
Meera Pal, Contra Costa Times
An e-mail scandal in the Pleasanton mayor’s race left the normally
tranquil East Bay city’s leadership in doubt for a full month following
Election Day last year. During the campaign and its aftermath, reporter Meera
Pal investigated allegations that the mayor had used a public email account
for campaign work and that the city had no public record of the other candidate
having sent or received any emails. Pal flushed out the story using Freedom
of Information Act requests, helping to put the email issue in perspective for
voters. Later, the Pleasanton city council began drawing up an email records
retention policy.
Susan Sward, Bill Wallace, Elizabeth Fernandez & Seth Rosenfeld,
San Francisco Chronicle
“Use of Force,” an investigative series about the San Francisco
Police Department, revealed an institution that failed to control its officers’
use of physical force against civilians. To show that the deadliest use of force
was concentrated among a small but influential group of officers, Chronicle
reporters built a database to examine any officer’s records over a nine-year
period. That gave the Chronicle access to better information than the police
department’s own data. Before the final article, on the high African American
arrest rate, was published, city leaders hired a criminal justice expert to
examine the disparity compared with other cities.
LEGAL COUNSEL
David Greene
To anyone who doesn’t already know David Greene, it would seem
this man has cloned himself and sent an army of lawyers into the courts to defend
the First Amendment. Over the past year alone, he has represented jailed video
journalist Josh Wolf and freelance radio reporter Sarah Olson, who resisted
separate federal government subpoenas. He also represented the San Francisco
Bay Guardian and Media Alliance, who persuaded a federal judge to unseal records
in a major media antitrust lawsuit. All the while, David has continued his work
as an educator and as an advocate for myriad other clients as executive director
of the First Amendment Project.
NEWS MEDIA (2 winners)
San Jose Mercury News
News organizations often call for more transparency in the conduct
of public business. But a rash of secret dealings in San Jose City Hall prompted
the Mercury News to go a step further, calling for the adoption of a sunshine
ordinance that would open city government to greater public scrutiny. The paper
produced a model ordinance the city could use as the basis for drafting its
own, and continues to work with a community task force developing a law tailored
to the city’s needs. Meanwhile, the Merc built public understanding and
support for sunshine, helping to make it an issue in last year’s mayoral
campaign.
San Mateo County Times
In the wake of recent Norovirus outbreaks around the state, counties
have been increasingly silent on naming facilities where confirmed outbreaks
of this highly contagious virus occurred, especially where residential homes
are concerned. In San Mateo County, officials refused to disclose the names
of several facilities suffering an outbreak, citing health information privacy
laws. Using the California Public Records Act, the San Mateo County Times forced
health officials to relinquish the names of affected facilities, including two
not originally noted by the county. Without going to court, The Times was able
to establish a precedent that will serve to inform their readers in the future.
ONLINE FREE SPEECH
Josh Wolf
Last November, SPJ Northern California named Josh Wolf one of three
journalists of the year to acknowledge his sacrifice by going to jail on a contempt-of-court
charge rather than turning over outtakes from his video of a violent street
protest in 2005. Wolf has now served a longer jail term for resisting a subpoena
than any journalist in U.S. history. But rather than be silenced, Wolf continued
operating his Web log, his ‘blog,’ by sending letters to family
and friends to post on Joshwolf.net. He created two other Web sites as well:
Mediafreedoms.net, established to support journalists' resistance to government
pressure, and Prisonblogs.net, giving prisoners a means to express themselves
and air grievances within the prison system.
PUBLIC OFFICIAL
John Sarsfield
As district attorney of San Benito County, John Sarsfield did something
unheard of for someone in his position: He sought to prosecute the county board
of supervisors for violating the Brown Act, the state law providing for openness
in government meetings. Sarsfield launched an investigation after a complaint
that the board had met illegally in closed session; the board later cut off
his funding in retaliation. The Brown Act lacks an enforcement mechanism, and
a DA’s decision to prosecute is entirely discretionary. In other words,
it never happens. Sarsfield is being honored for valuing open government enough
to put his position on the line by tackling a politically sensitive violation.
SPECIAL CITATION
Mark Fainaru-Wada & Lance Williams, San Francisco Chronicle
The San Francisco Chronicle’s recent coverage of steroid use
in professional sports was a grand slam for investigative reporting. But because
reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams relied on leaked grand jury testimony,
the two face an ongoing threat of prison time unless they reveal confidential
sources, something both of them have refused to do. As the Chronicle noted in
a legal brief filed in December, the stakes are extraordinarily high, reaching
back to the legacy of “Deep Throat,” who in the early 1970s helped
uncover the Watergate scandal. “If the subpoenas in this case must be
enforced,” attorneys for the Chronicle wrote, “then no reporter
today could make a promise of confidentiality to a contemporary Deep Throat
that he is legally entitled to keep.”
Sarah Olson
Independent radio reporter Sarah Olson successfully resisted a subpoena
from the Army in the court martial of First Lt. Ehren Watada, who refused to
deploy to Iraq and publicly criticized the war. Called to testify about an interview
with Watada, Olson argued that her work spoke for itself and claimed the subpoena
was merely an excuse to intimidate the press. Army prosecutors ultimately dropped
the subpoena once Watada agreed to stipulate that her reporting was accurate.
Olson, however, attributes the turn of events to the support she received from
media groups, including SPJ.
STUDENT JOURNALIST (High School)
Staff of The Lowell
The 2006 – ’07 academic year at Lowell High School in San
Francisco got off to a crime-ridden and controversial start. Reporters at the
school's student-run paper, The Lowell, covered it all. Their work prompted
the school principal to come in and lecture students, questioning their choice
to file stories rather than turning in sensitive information directly to school
administrators. All along, the students resisted their principal’s attempt
to squeeze them for information, recognizing this would compromise their ability
to cultivate sources in the future. These young journalists are being honored
for understanding the need to protect confidential sources in order to bring
the whole story into the public eye.
WHISTLEBLOWER
Mark Klein
A class action lawsuit seeking to end the federal government’s
warrantless wiretapping program, targeting its own citizens, got a boost last
April from evidence that shows the National Security Agency was eavesdropping
on telephone calls and Internet traffic. Mark Klein, a former AT&T communications
technician, discovered a room in a San Francisco building owned by SBC, AT&T’s
corporate predecessor, which he claims is operated by the NSA. He came forward
because he believes the Bush Administration was not being forthcoming about
the extent of its domestic spying. The case is currently under review by the
Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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