Brechner News

Posted: October 4, 2018

Private employers of all kinds, including universities, commonly forbid their employees from discussing work-related matters with journalists without prior approval. But a new analysis by Brechner Center researchers finds that broadly worded workplace “gag orders” are likely invalid and unenforceable under federal labor law. In an article for The Journal of Academic Freedom (“Stopping the Presses: Private Universities and Gag Orders on Media Interviews”), Brechner Center attorneys Frank LoMonte and Linda Riedemann Norbut analyze decades’ worth of cases from the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) in which employees have challenged their employers’ rules against giving interviews to the news media.…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Gag orders, Government Gagged, National Labor Relations Act, National Labor Relations Board

Posted: August 27, 2018

Ethan: I’m Ethan Magoc, a journalist at the Innovation News Center at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications. Today I’m speaking with Bethany Barnes. She’s a reporter at the Oregonian in Portland, Oregon and her 2017 story, called “Benefit of the Doubt,” won our Brechner Center for Freedom of Information’s annual award. She’s visiting Gainesville and UF this week. So, Bethany, how long have you for the Oregonian and how long have you covered the topic that you do? Bethany: Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, I’ve worked at the Oregonian since July 2016. I cover…

Category: Uncategorized

Posted: June 10, 2018

Responding to high-profile cases in which law enforcement agencies’ failure to timely inform the public about police shootings and aggravated public distrust, the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information is issuing guidelines for agencies to consider in informing the public when officers use force. The report, “Transparency and Media Relations in High-Profile Police Cases,” was prepared at the request of the King County, Wash., Office of Law Enforcement Oversight (“OLEO”), an independent oversight entity serving the county, which encompasses the Seattle area. “We’re excited to have the opportunity to work cooperatively with a forward-thinking law enforcement agency on formulating a…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: King County Sheriff's Office, police shootings

Posted: May 30, 2018

In a case reminiscent of the dispute over President Trump’s blocking of critics from his Twitter feed, UF’s Brechner Center for Freedom of Information and Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project are supporting the free-speech case of a Texas police critic who was forbidden from posting to the Facebook page of her local sheriff’s office. The two organizations, joined by a coalition of national free-expression advocates, filed a friend-of-the-court brief Tuesday asking a federal appeals court to reinstate a First Amendment case accusing the Hunt County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office of illegally removing posts critical of the sheriff and blocking an…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Facebook, Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, First Amendment, Robinson v. Hunt County

Posted: March 21, 2018

Confusing federal privacy laws are regularly misapplied to obstruct journalists’ and parents’ access to essential safety information about public schools, the Brechner Center’s Frank LoMonte writes in an opinion column for Education Week magazine. In the March 16 article — “Student Privacy Laws Have Been Distorted (And That’s a Problem)” — LoMonte explains how, despite seemingly clear directives from the courts and the U.S. Department of Education to apply FERPA narrowly, the statute has in fact been applied as a catch-all excuse for educational institutions to refuse comment on matters involving safety and discipline. The column highlights a South Florida…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: FERPA, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, school shootings, student privacy

Posted: March 14, 2018

The University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) and the National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC) today announced that NFOIC will be relocating its headquarters to the University of Florida. UFCJC will now be home to three units at the forefront of freedom of information and First Amendment issues:  NFOIC, the Joseph L. Brechner Center for Freedom of Information and the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project.  NFOIC will be located inside the Brechner Center and the two organizations will collaborate to create research and public-awareness projects advancing the access rights of journalists, and all citizens, to information…

Category: Uncategorized

Posted: March 12, 2018

In a brief filed with a New Mexico state court, the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information argues that public university foundations should be subject to state open-government laws, because they fulfill essential governmental duties interchangeably with their host universities. The Brechner Center, in collaboration with the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (“NMFOG“), is asking a New Mexico district judge to side with sports blogger Daniel Libit in his request for records from the University of New Mexico Foundation needed for coverage of university athletics for his blog, NMFishbowl.com. State universities normally must make their records accessible for public…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Daniel Libit, New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, NMFishbowl.com, Shadow Governments Project, University foundations, University of New Mexico

Posted: February 21, 2018

Journalism published or broadcast during 2017 that highlights the importance of open government in advancing the public’s right to know is eligible for a $3,000 cash award offered through the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida. The Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Award is presented annually to recognize outstanding news coverage that promotes transparent, accountable government. Applications are due March 9, and details about how to apply are available on the brechner.org website. The winner will be recognized April 9 at a meeting of the Florida Free Speech Forum in Gainesville, Fla., and entrants…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner Awards, investigative reporting

Posted: February 1, 2018

Newsworthy video from school surveillance cameras can’t be withheld from the public on the grounds of student privacy, a group of open-government groups argues in a brief filed with a Pennsylvania appeals court. The brief, authored by the Brechner Center’s Frank LoMonte and David Jadon, supports television journalists from Harrisburg who used their state’s Right-to-Know-Law to request footage of a school-bus security camera that captured an altercation between a parent and a student.

Category: Brechner News, College News
Tagged as: Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Central Dauphin School District, Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, FERPA, Frank LoMonte, Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law, public records, student privacy, surveillance video

Posted: January 9, 2018

In an opinion column for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Frank LoMonte, director of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, cautions that the trend toward selecting presidents of public universities in total secrecy risks saddling institutions with ill-suited leaders who haven’t been properly vetted. The column, “Rich white businessmen aren’t best judges of college presidents,” was published on the AJC.com website on Dec. 17 as part of an occasional series of guest commentaries curated by the AJC’s Maureen Downey. The column responds to the recent and abrupt resignation of Kennesaw State University President Sam…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Frank LoMonte, Kennesaw State University, open records laws, presidential searches, Sam Olens

Posted: April 11, 2016

The Miami Herald has been named the winner of the 30th Annual Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Award for its groundbreaking investigative series titled: “Innocents Lost.” The two award-winning Herald reporters, Carol Marbin Miller and Audra D.S. Burch, investigated Florida’s child welfare system by following the lives – and deaths – of children within the system. As part of the three-year-long investigation, the reporters pored over thousands of documents, uncovering a system that was clearly broken, leaving children unprotected and at risk. The Miami Herald was forced to file three public records lawsuits demanding access to many of the documents about the treatment…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner Awards, Miami Herald

Posted: April 13, 2015

The Los Angeles Times has been named the winner of the 29th Annual Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Award for its investigative series. The award-winning series titled: “Lifting a Cloak of Secrecy,” details the fight for access to information about ownership of the Los Angeles Coliseum. UF’s College of Journalism and Communications Dean Diane McFarlin presented the $3,000 prize to the Times’ Ron Li and Paul Pringle at the Florida Free Speech Forum’s annual Buddy Davis award luncheon on April 13, 2015. “The reporters used public records to reveal how Los Angeles city officials were making secret deals to…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner Awards, Los Angeles Times