Brechner News

Posted: November 16, 2020

Frank LoMonte, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Brechner Center for Freedom of Information director, is quoted in “The Public Has a Right to Weigh in at Government Meetings. Does Playing Voicemails All Night Cut It?” published on South Florida public radio station WLRN-FM’s website. The story focuses on a Miami-Dade County School Board decision to allow nearly 800 voicemails about reopening schools closed due to the pandemic to be streamed during a public meeting. The epic 29-hour event has sparked questions as to whether this decision may have violated state laws guaranteeing public access to government proceedings.…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Frank LoMonte

Posted: October 29, 2020

Frank LoMonte, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Brechner Center for Freedom of Information director, has developed the online course “Open Records Success: Strategies for Writing Requests and Overcoming Denials” for poynter.com. LoMonte and Barbara Allen, Poynter director of college programming, created a video lecture tutorial offering strategies for requesting public records and tips for overcoming common obstacles to public records access. During the course, they walk viewers through figuring out what records are needed, who keeps them and how to request that information from local, state and federal sources and they provide real-world requests and their results.…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Frank LoMonte, Poynter, public records

Posted: October 16, 2020

A 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning story by Sara Ganim, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Brechner Center for Freedom of Information Hearst Journalism fellow, and her former colleagues at the Central Pennsylvania newspaper Patriot-News, was nominated for the “Top Ten Works of Journalism of the Decade” awards presented by New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Ganim led the investigation that resulted in “The Sandusky Scandal,” which featured extensive coverage of the Penn State sex scandal involving former football coach Jerry Sandusky. The story received the Pulitzer Prize in Local reporting for courageously revealing and adeptly covering the…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Sara Ganim

Posted: October 12, 2020

Frank LoMonte, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Brechner Center for Freedom of Information director, is quoted in “College Athletes, Long Muffled By Schools, Are Finding New Ways to Speak Out” published in The Washington Post on Oct. 12. The article focuses on college athletes who have been prohibited from speaking to journalists without team permission. In addition, some schools have policies that monitor or restrict players’ social media accounts. In response to this situation, many athletes have advocated for themselves in unprecedented ways. According to LoMonte, “As games are canceled and some universities withhold information about positive…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, First Amendment, Frank LoMonte

Posted: October 7, 2020

Frank LoMonte, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Brechner Center for Freedom of Information director, is quoted in “Sheriff Ivey and Opponent Alton Edmond Spar Over $15K Public Records Invoice” published in Florida Today on Oct. 5. The story focuses on a $15,000 invoice for completion of a public records request for information on Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey’s travel expenditures and correspondence. The request was made by his campaign challenger Alton Edmond. According to LoMonte, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office invoice posed an ethical question in addition to being legally questionable. “There is a certain degree of deference…

Category: Brechner News

Posted: September 25, 2020

Frank LoMonte, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Brechner Center for Freedom of Information director, is the author of “Universities Continue to Block Athletes from Talking to the Media. That’s Got to Stop” published on poynter.org on Sept. 23. LoMonte presents highlights of the Brechner Center’s “government gagged” research on the First Amendment issues raised by public universities’ practice of forbidding unauthorized interviews with college athletes. The research sought to answer two questions: How often are public universities gagging athletes from speaking to the media, and is it legal for them to do it? “Undoubtedly, colleges have convinced themselves…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Frank LoMonte

Posted: September 22, 2020

Frank LoMonte, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Brechner Center for Freedom of Information director, is quoted in two articles published in the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Sept. 21. “Some Schools Withhold COVID-19 Infection Information from Parents, Teachers” focuses on the lack of or limited disclosure of data on COVID-19 cases in Georgia public schools. According to LoMonte, “The number of COVID cases is almost certainly not going to be traceable to an individual. The federal laws protecting medical records won’t apply to a school unless it is billing for medical services, and the privacy protections for students…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Frank LoMonte

Posted: September 22, 2020

Frank LoMonte, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Brechner Center for Freedom of Information director, and Journalism senior Kyle Wood were quoted in “College Newspaper Reporters are the Journalism heroes for the Pandemic Era” published in The Washington Post on Sept. 19. The article focuses on college newspapers who are filling the local news void and producing essential work from the center of some of the nation’s newest coronavirus hot spots. According to Wood, The Independent Florida Alligator editor-in-chief, the UF student newspaper has not been cutting back on coverage. Their coverage includes anti-racism protests, campus preparations for…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Frank LoMonte, Kyle Wood, The Independent Florida Alligator

Posted: September 22, 2020

Frank LoMonte, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Brechner Center for Freedom of Information director, was recently recognized for his efforts to assist with the creation of a Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) resolution against controls on employee speech by government agencies. These controls have led to severe limitations on public scrutiny of those entities and to a higher COVID-19 death toll. LoMonte was lauded for his extensive legal analysis that found such controls on speech are unconstitutional. The resolution was made and passed by the 83 delegates attending the recent virtual SPJ2020 Journalism Conference. SPJ has led…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Frank LoMonte, SPJ

Posted: September 16, 2020

Frank LoMonte, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Brechner Center for Freedom of Information director, is the co-author of “Running the Full-Court Press: How College Athletic Departments Unlawfully Restrict Athletes’ Rights to Speak to the News Media” published in Nebraska Law Review, Volume 99, Issue 1, 2020. In the article, LoMonte and Virginia Hamrick analyze the policies that are pervasive throughout public universities that forbid athletes from speaking to the news media. They found that “these policies cannot be justified under any understanding of the First Amendment, because policies broadly restraining speech are almost always unconstitutional, even in…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Frank LoMonte

Posted: September 8, 2020

Frank LoMonte, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Brechner Center for Freedom of Information director, was quoted in “Here’s Why You Won’t See Reporting from Inside Seattle-Area Virtual Classrooms This Week” published in The Seattle Times on Sept. 4. Thousands of Washington children returned to schools – mostly online. However, there are few firsthand accounts of what’s happening inside classrooms because local school districts are allowing journalists limited access. According to LoMonte, the schools have no legal obligation to allow journalists to observe classes — virtually or in person. But it’s good public policy to do so. A…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Frank LoMonte

Posted: September 4, 2020

Frank LoMonte, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Brechner Center for Freedom of Information director, was quoted in “Nearly Half of Power 5 Won’t Disclose COVID-19 Test Data” posted on ESPN on Sept. 3. The story features the lack of or limited disclosure of positive COVID-19 test results and data by college and university athletic programs. According to LoMonte, “federal privacy laws shouldn’t be applied to coronavirus testing data because it’s impossible to determine which athletes have tested positive and which haven’t based on numbers alone.” “There’s almost no way that anyone can reverse engineer the names of…

Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Frank LoMonte