Brechner News

Entries for the 2025 Brechner Freedom of Information Award are being accepted through Jan. 10, 2025, to recognize outstanding records-based news reporting aired or published during 2024.  The award has been presented annually since 1986 by the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida College…

University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJD) graduate Loren Miranda, B.S. Journalism 2024, and Julia Roeder of The Tower at Grosse Pointe South High School in Michigan are the recipients of the 2024 Student Freedom of Information Awards.

Sydney Sims joins the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project Nov. 12 as its first full-time outreach coordinator to lead national Sunshine Week and other efforts to educate journalists and the public about their rights to access government information.

A study conducted through the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project sounds the alarm on the perfect storm of factors coalescing to restrict student journalist independence on college campuses. 

David Cuillier, director of the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, spoke about the importance of government transparency Friday (Nov. 1) in Washington, D.C., at a conference recognizing the 50th anniversary of the 1974 amendments to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

David Cuillier, director of the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, gave the keynote address at a research conference in Buea, Cameroon, on Oct. 25, about the importance of information sharing to address climate change.

About two-thirds of people who appeal public record denials to the Ohio Court of Claims, for just $25, are awarded their documents, according to the winning research study in this year’s NFOIC-Brechner Freedom of Information Research Competition.

Nonprofit groups engaged in the public records group could benefit themselves, government agencies, and the public by collaborating more, according to a research article published in the latest issue of the Journal of Civic Information.

The open-access online Journal of Civic Information, published by the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project, celebrates its 5-year anniversary this month, publishing 36 studies and 20 editorials with 15,124 downloads.

David Cuillier, director of the Brechner Freedom of Information (FOI) Project, is quoted in “Mayors, Teachers, Parent Push for Release of Information About Perry High School Shootings” published in the Des Moines Register on Sept. 6.

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration appointed Brechner FOI Project Director David Cuillier to a third term on the Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee.

The Brechner Freedom of Information Project seeks an energetic and passionate individual to lead public outreach and education in freedom of information (FOI) to advance the public’s right to know.