Society of Professional Journalists: Freedom of Information Reports

— ADVERTISEMENT —
Advertise with SPJ

Join SPJ | Why join?
Renew membership

Stay in Touch

News and More
Click to Expand Instantly

SPJ News

Events and Deadlines

SPJ Blogs (National)

Quill Online

SPJ on Tumblr

Journalist's Toolbox

Your Right to Know
Find FOI in your state

Freedom of Information
About/History
News/Articles
Covering Prisons
Project Sunshine: Find FOI Help
Accessing Government Records
Shield Law Campaign
FOI Audit Tookit | PDF
Anti-SLAPP: Protect Free Speech
Official Secrets Act bill
FOI Groups
Annual FOI Reports
FOI Committee Roster

FOI FYI: SPJ’s FOI Committee Blog
— Oklahoma State University wins SPJ’s National Black Hole Award
— North Carolina paper Cherokee Scout withdraws request for gun records, grovels for forgiveness
— University of Wyoming will make presidential finalists public, despite new law

FOI Committee
This committee is the watchdog of press freedoms across the nation. It relies upon a network of volunteers in each state organized under Project Sunshine. These SPJ members are on the front lines for assaults to the First Amendment and when lawmakers attempt to restrict the public's access to documents and the government's business. The committee often is called upon to intervene in instances where the media is restricted.

Freedom of Information Committee Chair

Linda Petersen
Managing Editor
The Valley Journals
801-254-5974 X 17
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Linda Petersen is the managing editor of The Valley Journals, a group of 15 free, total market coverage, monthly community papers in the Salt Lake Valley, Utah.

She is president of the Utah Foundation for Open Government, a citizen coalition that works to educate and advocate for open government.

A past president of the Utah Headliners pro chapter, she is currently the chapter’s FOI officer and treasurer.

For her open government advocacy, she has received the Utah Press Association John E. Jones Award, the Utah Headliners Clifford P. Cheney Service to Journalism Award and the Howard S. Dubin Outstanding Pro Chapter Member Award.

FOI Committee Members

Sonny Albarado
Projects Editor
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
121 E. Capitol Ave.
Little Rock, AR 72201
Work: 501-244-4321
Fax: 501-372-4765
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

As projects editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock, Sonny Albarado supervises reporters on investigative and explanatory journalism assignments. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, La.

His 37-year journalism career includes lengthy sojourns in Baton Rouge, La., and Memphis, Tenn. He has been a reporter, an assistant city editor, a business editor (twice), a projects editor (twice) and a news editor. He also briefly edited a trade magazine dedicated to the coin-operated amusement industry.

He has been involved in the defense of the First Amendment and the free flow of information since his days as editor of his college’s student newspaper. A member of SPJ since 1979, he is currently a member of the national board of directors from Region 12 (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee).

All awards he’s received have been the result of good editors when he was a reporter and excellent reporters since he’s been an editor.

Carolyn S. Carlson
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
Kennesaw State University
MD2207
Kennesaw, GA 30114-5591
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Carolyn S. Carlson is co-chairman of the SPJ FOI Committee’s Subcommittee On Campus Crime. For the past decade, she has been a leader in the effort to improve public access to records involving student discipline and crime on the nation’s college campuses. She founded the multi-organizational Campus Courts Task Force, which received an SPJ Freedom of Information Award in 1998 for its success in changing federal law to increase public access to college disciplinary records involving serious crime. Carlson has a doctorate from Georgia State University. She is an assistant professor of journalism and citizen media at Kennesaw State University. She is a former political press secretary and a longtime reporter and editor for The Associated Press. She was national president of SPJ in 1989-1990, chaired the SPJ Ethics Committee in 1993-94, received SPJ’s Wells Key in 1994, and was named to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers in 2002, 2005 and 2006.

David Chartrand
Bio (click to expand)

The humor and commentary of David Chartrand have appeared in publications throughout North America. His essays on families, children, education, and health issues are distributed to daily newspapers by Universal Press Syndicate as well as by his own distribution company.

David has confronted numerous First Amendment, Freedom of Information, and public-access issues during coverage of local and state government, as well as public schools.

His Web site is www.davidchartrand.com.

David is the author of, “A View from the Heartland” (2003, Globe-Pequot Press), a collection of stories and essays about midwestern families and the resiliency of the human spirit. He currently is completing work on a work of narrative nonfiction that examines attitudes toward mental illness in successful, middle-class communities.

In 2002, David received a First Place Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

Mark Victor Hansen, co-creator of the CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL book series, says that David Chartrand’s writing “embraces the mundane, everyday things that make us laugh, weep or pound the table in frustration.” David’s 1994 essay, "A Father's Letter to Santa" was included in CHICKEN SOUP: A CHRISTMAS TREASURY, where the publishers cited it as among the most memorable Christmas essays of all time.

David is a 1975 Kansas State University journalism graduate and a member of the journalism school’s advisory board.

Jodi Cleesattle
Deputy Attorney General, California Department of Justice
San Diego, CA
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Jodi Cleesattle is a deputy attorney general for the California Department of Justice, where she works in the Civil Division in San Diego. Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office, she was a partner at Ross, Dixon & Bell, LLP, in San Diego, where she handled media law cases and other commercial litigation. Jodi previously worked as a daily news reporter for The Lancaster (Ohio) Eagle-Gazette, covering politics and legal issues, and was founding editor of The National Jurist, a national magazine for law students. Jodi serves on SPJ's national board as Region 11 director and on SPJ’s national FOI Committee and Legal Defense Fund Committee. She is SPJ Project Sunshine Chair for Southern California and a board member of the SPJ San Diego Pro Chapter and was president of the San Diego Pro Chapter from 2007-09. She also serves as editor of Lawyers Club News, the monthly newsletter of Lawyers Club of San Diego, a bar association dedicated to the advancement of women in the law and society, and she freelances for San Diego Lawyer magazine.

Carol Cole-Frowe
Freelance Writer/Editor
P.O. Box 720102
Norman, OK 73070
(405) 326-4539, mobile
(405) 364-1123, fax
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Carol Cole-Frowe is a veteran journalist and full-time freelancer, writing for daily newspapers, Web sites and regional and national magazines. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma.

Most recently she was government reporter at the Norman (Okla.) Transcript and has written or edited for several Oklahoma daily newspapers and The Associated Press. She was managing editor of the Altus (Okla.) Times and news editor for the Edmond (Okla.) Sun and has reported for the Oklahoma Gazette.

She was honored with the SPJ Oklahoma Pro Chapter's First Amendment Award in 2000 for her dogged pursuit of records in an investigation of the death of a newborn in the Oklahoma County Jail, which resulted in her being sued by the Oklahoma County sheriff in his unsuccessful effort to block access to the records. She is currently serving in her second year as president of the Oklahoma Pro Chapter.

David Cuillier
Assistant Professor
Department of Journalism
University of Arizona
Marshall Building, Room 323
Tucson, AZ 85721-0158
Work: 520/626-9694
Fax: 520/621-7557
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

David Cuillier, a former newspaper reporter and editor, is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism at the University of Arizona. He researches public attitudes toward freedom of information and is one of the SPJ newsroom trainers for acquiring government documents.

Charles Davis
Bio (click to expand)

Charles N. Davis is executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Davis worked for nearly ten years as a journalist, working for newspapers, magazines and a news service in Georgia and Florida. As a national correspondent for Lafferty Publications, a Dublin-based news wire service for UK publications, Davis reported from the US on banking, international finance and regulatory issues for seven years before leaving full-time journalism to seek a doctorate in mass communication from the University of Florida.

At Florida, Davis served as a research fellow in the College of Journalism and Communication’s Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, assisting reporters and citizens with FOI questions at the state and federal level. He earned his Ph.D. in 1995 and has since taught at Georgia Southern University and Southern Methodist University before joining the MU faculty in 1999.

Mike Farrell
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Mike Farrell serves as director of the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center at the University of Kentucky and as an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications. He began teaching as an adjunct in 1980 at Northern Kentucky University, continued as a graduate teaching assistant at UK in 1996, and has been a full-time faculty member there since 2000. He won the college teaching award in 2006.

He teaches reporting, media ethics, media law, journalism history, editing, media law, covering religion news and column writing.

He was a reporter, city editor and managing editor during a 20-year career at The Kentucky Post.

A native of Northern Kentucky, he earned his undergraduate degree at Moody Bible Institute, Chicago. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees at UK, where he focused on media law. He is a member of the Bluegrass Chapter and co-adviser of the UK student chapter of SPJ.

Ana-Klara Hering
University of Florida
PO Box 118400
Gainesville, FL 32611-8400
Work: 352-392-2273
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Ana-Klara H. Anderson is a litigation associate with the law firm of Thomas & LoCicero PL in Tampa, FL. She represents both English and Spanish-language media clients in the areas of First Amendment law, contests and sweepstakes, commercial litigation and arts & entertainment. In her media/First Amendment practices, Ana-Klara provides pre-broadcast and pre-publication review and newsgathering advice and counsels media clients concerning Internet content and publication practices. She also defends against subpoenas to reporters, defamation, and privacy claims, and prosecutes actions concerning access to government records and proceedings.

Ana-Klara is a member of the American Bar Association's Forum on Communications Law and the Society of Professional Journalists National Freedom of Information Committee. She is a past president of the North Central Florida Society of Professional Journalists. Ana-Klara earned her law degree from the University of Florida Levin College of Law and her Ph.D. in Media Law and Policy from UF's College of Journalism and Communications.

Before entering graduate school, Ana-Klara served in the United States Marine Corps. She entered into military service in 2000 after graduating from The George Washington University, where she earned a bachelor of arts in International Affairs with a minor in Journalism and wrote for the GW Hatchet. Ana-Klara has worked as a freelance journalist for the Sun-Sentinel, Miami Herald, and Palm Beach Post. She interned for the Washington D.C. bureau of the Dallas Morning News and worked as a news clerk for the Washington Post.

Ana-Klara can be reached at aanderson@tlolawfirm.com or 813-984-3060.

Robert Leger
Assistant Editorial
Page Editor
Scottsdale Republic
16277 Greenway-Hayden Loop
Suite 200
Scottsdale, AZ 85260
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Robert Leger is opinions editor at the Arizona Republic in Phoenix, responsible for the editorial and op-ed pages of the main paper and its community sections. He was president of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2002-03 and has served on the SDX board since 2000. He won the Wells Memorial Key, the Society's highest honor, in 2012.

Among his other journalism-related activities: He is a former president of the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona and was a founding member of OpenTheGovernment.org's steering committee. He pioneered an exchange relationship between SPJ and the Journalists Association of Korea.

Before moving to Phoenix, Leger won numerous writing awards during his 12 years as editorial page editor of the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader.

He and his wife, Cindy, enjoy visits from bobcats, javalinas, roadrunners and other desert critters at their home outside Phoenix. Their two sons attend Arizona State University.

Christina Locke
Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, University of Florida
3208 Weimer Hall
P.O. Box 118400
Gainesville, FL 32611
Work phone: (352) 392-2273
Fax: (352) 392-9173
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Christina Locke is a University of Florida doctoral student studying media law and policy. Locke has worked as a reporter for the Okeechobee News and a copy editor for the Gainesville Sun. A graduate of the University of Florida Levin College of Law, Locke practiced as a civil litigator in Atlanta, Georgia prior to returning to UF to pursue her Ph.D. She has published several scholarly articles on freedom of information and media law issues.

Locke is currently a research fellow and Interim Assistant Director at the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the UF College of Journalism and Communications. She assists reporters and citizens with FOI questions, researches FOI and produces a monthly newsletter on access issues in Florida. She expects to receive her doctorate in 2011.

Donald W. Meyers
Utah County Reporter
The Salt Lake Tribune
(801) 448-6106
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Donald W. Meyers has been at a reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune since July 2007. Prior to that, he was the editorial page editor of the Daily Herald in Provo, Utah for more than eight years, as well as having been a reporter at daily and weekly newspapers in Utah and New Jersey. He majored in Journalism at Brookdale Community College in New Jersey and Brigham Young University. He is a past-president of the Utah Headliners Chapter, Society of Professional Journalists and is a member of the Utah Foundation for Open Government.

Hoa Quach
Local Editor
AOL Patch.com
331 N. Maple Drive
Beverly Hills, Ca 90210
858-997-3103
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Hoa Quach is a local editor for AOL Patch.com, covering Poway, Calif. She is also an English editor for Global Voices Online.

Prior to joining Patch.com, she was the political editor for the San Diego News Network. She has also written for Asia: The Journal of Culture and Commerce, HuffingtonPost.com and a 2008 presidential elections’ project of Reuters and Global Voices Online, “Voices without Votes.” She has also coached reporters, edited books and is working on her first book. She graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in Journalism and minors in Asian Studies and Spanish.

But apart from her writing, humanistic endeavors are at the top of her priority list. At SDSU, she was one of the original members of College Students for New Orleans — an organization that supports student volunteer efforts in New Orleans and the surrounding parishes. She is also the founder of Art Relief, an annual benefit that supports community rebuilding efforts. She assisted the Union of Pan Asian Communities in the development of a media literacy program for low-income children in San Diego. She is also the president of the Asian American Journalists Association in San Diego and board member for Rolling Readers USA.

Joey Senat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
School of Media
Oklahoma State University
206 Paul Miller
Stillwater, OK 74078-4053
405-744-8277
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Joey Senat, an associate journalism professor at Oklahoma State University, writes a blog, foioklahoma.blogspot.com, for FOI Oklahoma Inc., a nonprofit representing a statewide coalition of open government advocates.

His model letter for requesting public records in Oklahoma is widely used. He also wrote a citizens guide to the state’s open records and meeting laws.

Senat has spoken on FOI, First Amendment and journalism education issues at dozens of professional and academic conferences, including the AEJMC National Conference, IRE National Conference, IRE Better Watchdog Workshops and SPJ Region 8 conferences. In summer 2012, he conducted open records training sessions across the Midwest for SPJ.

For his work to advance government transparency, Senat received the 2007 Marian Opala First Amendment Award and the 2005 Oklahoma Society of Professional Journalists Award for Distinguished Service to the First Amendment.

Senat has been published in Quill and the IRE Journal. He reported for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., and the Tulsa (Okla.) World. He earned academic degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill, Memphis State University and LSU.

Andy Thibault
116 Meadow St., PO Box 1415
Litchfield, CT 06759
860-690-0211
E-mail
Bio (click to expand)

Andy Thibault is author of Law & Justice In Everyday Life and blogs at The Cool Justice report. Cool Justice was inspired by "justice stories" in The NY Daily News and the work of writers including Breslin, Buchanan, Ellroy, Hammett, Zinn and Chandler. The column by that name ran in The Connecticut Law Tribune from 2000 - 2006. Thibault, semi-retired, is a cancer survivor. He served as a writing professor and a mentor in the MFA program at Western CT State University and also taught at Northwestern CT Community College and the University of Hartford. He works occasionally as a private investigator and writes a feature story or column now and then. Thibault delivered the 2004 Pew Memorial Lecture In Journalism at Widener University, Chester, Pa. He chairs a fund that has awarded nearly $200k to young writers, the CT Young Writers Trust, now in its 14th year. In 2011 he taught a 5-session seminar on state & federal FOI laws for the RCNewsroomCafe. Thibault served as a commissioner with Connecticut’s FOI Commission from 1995-96.

Home > Freedom of Information > Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information reports

Freedom of Information
Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information reports

Copies of SPJ's annual Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information reports are available for downloading. All reports are in PDF format.

2010 Report
Cracking The Dam: A Guide To Journalists’ Right of Equal Access To Information

2009 Report
Skirting Censorship in the Muslim World: Discourse Through an Ever-Growing Blogosphere

2008 Report
An End Run Around the First Amendment: “Libel Tourists” Take Aim Overseas

2007 Report
Press Freedom in Africa: Experiences and Modes

2005 Report
“A Questionable Procedure?” Deciding Who Should Be Covered by a Federal Shield Law

2004 Report
A Public Trial in the 21st Century: Cameras in the Courtroom — Public Access for All

2003 Report
HIPPA: How Medical Privacy Regulations are Unhealthy for Journalists

2002 Report
Homeland Defense: Secrecy or Security

2001 Report
Weird Torts: Coming to a Courtroom Near You

2000 Report
Credentialing for Online Journalists: An Evolving Story

1999 Report
SLAPP Back: How the Media Can Take Advantage of State Laws

1997 Report
The Erosion of the Reporter’s Privilege