Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum Earns SPJ First Freedom Award

Oregon Attorney General Ellen
Rosenblum
The Oregon Territory Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has selected Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum for its annual First Freedom Award.

The First Freedom Award recognizes a non-journalist who has advocated for open government in Oregon. In making the selection, the chapter board said it wanted to recognize Rosenblum’s recent initiative to put together a statewide Public Records Task Force.

The task force is charged with exploring solutions to the tangled mess of more than 500 exemptions to Oregon Public Records Law, burgeoning fee structures and a lack of deadlines for disclosure.

“We have great hopes that the work of the task force will help to open the halls and files of Oregon governments,” Oregon SPJ Sunshine Chair Shasta Kearns Moore said. “The attorney general has proven herself a friend of transparency and public governance. We hope the Legislature will take note of the collaborative and thorough work of the task force and pass long-overdue legislation that its constituency deeply desires.”

Rosenblum will be presented with the award on Tuesday, June 21, in Portland. The public and fellow journalists are invited to the Oregon Awards Night, 7-9 p.m. at the Green Dragon, 928 S.E. 9th Ave., in Portland.

The chapter will also recognize winners in the 2015 Region 10 SPJ Northwest Excellence in Journalism contest and Matthew Kish, winner of the 2015-16 Bruce Baer Award for outstanding investigative reporting in Oregon.

Find out more about the public records task force at www.doj.state.or.us/public_records/pages/index.aspx

Join SPJ at www.spj.org/join.asp

#  #  #

No comments:

Post a Comment