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Knight Foundation pass-through grants fund a variety of projects.The $50,000 grant allowed the National Freedom of Information Coalition to pass through some $42,000 immediately to meritorious state FOI proposals and was used to fund a broad variety of projects, ranging from reporter and public official education projects to a variety of print materials on open government. The Georgia First Amendment Foundation, for example, used its funding to produce a new publication “Public Schools and the Open Records Act in Georgia”—a compendium of open government laws and a training guide for school administrators and education reporters—as well as to produce an audit of FOI performance in the public schools of the state. The public school audit has been slightly delayed to coincide with the publication The Georgia public schools audit will take an interesting twist on the tried-and-true formula: parents are going to do the FOI requests, adding an invigorating civic quality to the project. The planned timetable for the publication of the booklet and the audit is August 2006, when Georgia students return to school. Read more about Knight Foundation's contributions to journalism. In Texas, funding went to support the publication of a “blackout book,” a visual representation of just how much information would be removed from daily newspapers (in a week of news) were it not for the Texas Public Information and Open Meetings Acts. This public awareness tool, to be handed out at citizen gatherings, including the Texas foundation’s own training sessions, will be a visual demonstration of how much basic information would not be available to citizens if these laws did not exist. By improving awareness, our coalitions can help educate and advocate for better access to public information. This grant also gave Texas its initial funding for what has grown into a hugely successful project – The Light of Day Project. In this exciting education program, the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas joins journalism departments at universities across the state to work on FOI-driven stories concerning the same agreed-upon theme. This year's theme is use of force. Students are investigating and requesting information from 254 Texas counties and 310 Texas cities. Students have written letters to county sheriffs and city police chiefs requesting information under the Texas Public Information Act. They have requested copies of use of force documentation regarding weapons, including tasers, stun guns or bean bag shotguns since January 1, 2000. Students have also requested incident reports, custodial death reports and copies of use of force policies. By allowing students to undergo the entire Public Information Act request process, the project educates the students not only about being a reporter but also about their rights and responsibilities as citizens. At the same time, the project educates the agencies the students are requesting information from about the responsibility they have to the citizens they serve. In Rhode Island, grant monies have been used in a project to educate high school students about the importance of the First Amendment. The project has two parts:
Thus far, two groups of student teachers from the University of Rhode Island have attended seminars introducing “Education for Freedom”, and the video producers expect to complete the interviews and finish editing the DVD by October. To make the video compelling for students of high school age, the producers settled on three high-profile stories in which reporters have used their skills to uncover information to help the public: the sinking of the Titanic, a drunk driving case and the Station nightclub fire. Access Rhode Island is really excited about the prospects of using this cutting-edge teaching tool as a way to get the word out in classrooms across the state. The Washington Coalition for Open Government used its grant funding in this cycle to hold a series of community workshops on open government in Wenatchee, Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane. The forums have reached more than 200 attendees—including members of the public, academics, and local officials. A final anecdote, from a more recent grant, demonstrates the power of thinking broadly about the mission of open government groups. Mitch Pearlman, the longtime chief of Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Commission, wrote recently to thank the NFOIC for its support of efforts to enact a shield law in that state. In May, the Connecticut legislature passed a qualified shield law that the state news media supported. The Governor signed the bill in June. “A year ago, the NFOIC gave a grant to Connecticut Foundation for Open Ggovernment to hold a summit of media leaders to help forge a consensus on the need for a state shield law where there had previously been a lack of consensus. Without that summit, I doubt the media would have united behind the bill, and I suspect it would not have passed, as it had in the past,” Pearlman said. It’s certainly food for thought as we move forward together in supporting open, accountable government. |
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The latest forum, held in July in Spokane, is a fine example of the form. A four-and-a-half hour program, featuring The Washington State Archivist, several attorneys specializing in access issues, the City Attorney and Assistant City Attorney of Spokane, and the Chelan County Clerk, the content is designed to spark discussion and spread the work of WCOG across the entire state of Washington.