LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Friends, By the time you read this, FAC will have launched an ambitious and unprecedented expansion effort, hiring three new employees in 2025 to support and defend local journalists and to broaden our push for government transparency. This growth is in response to what we’ve heard from you, our community of supporters. The need to shore up the fundamentals of democracy – free expression, a free press, and the right to know – is more urgent than ever before. As you read this Impact Report, I hope you’ll see that in 2024, FAC continued to fulfill the promise of your support. But let’s be honest: Things don’t look great out there. A free press, for one, is under attack. A combination of hard economic times for many media outlets and attacks from elected officials have undermined journalists’ ability to do their jobs. In 2024, we met this challenge head-on, bringing FAC’s expertise to journalists across California. Suing to defend your rights. Advocating in the legislature. Defending journalists subpoenaed for their sources and notes. FAC achieved so much in 2024 with your support, but there is much more to do. Fortunately, in 2025, FAC will be bigger, better and even more effective. For that, we thank you. DAVID SNYDER Executive Director First Amendment Coalition California spends billions on education. Taxpayers have the right to know how those funds are spent, and they rely on journalists to report the facts. Last year, FAC successfully fought on behalf of two journalists to get important public records from California’s education system. The first is Holly McDede, a freelance journalist who covers sexual misconduct in schools. After Matthew Shelton, a former teacher with Napa Valley and Benicia Unified School Districts, was charged with sexual abuse of students at Benicia Unified, McDede asked each district for public records related to Shelton’s alleged misconduct. Shelton then filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the districts from fulfilling her request. Represented by FAC, McDede intervened to defend the public’s right of access. FAC convinced the court to refuse Shelton’s demand to keep the records secret, allowing McDede to report on how the records showed that Shelton was able to regain his teaching credential after previous accusations that he had abused students. FAC is also representing McDede in a similar lawsuit brought by a former employee of Mill Valley Making our education systems more transparent School District seeking to prevent disclosure of records about conduct the district has identified as “boundary crossing or grooming behavior.” The second reporter is Elizabeth Wilson, a journalist with Mustang News, the student newspaper at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Wilson asked the university for records related to sexual assaults on campus, labor violations alleged by student employees, and a top administrator’s failure to respond to sexual harassment and other complaints. After the university withheld the requested records for over 18 months, FAC filed suit on Wilson’s behalf to compel disclosure. The university disclosed the requested records within three months of that filing. FAC then persuaded the university to reach a settlement under which campus staff have been trained on their obligations to disclose public records promptly and must meet regularly with Mustang News reporters to discuss the status of open requests, the criteria and process staff use to queue requests for processing, and suggestions for overcoming delays or denials of access to records. FAC Advocacy Director Ginny LaRoe received the Distinguished Service to Journalism Award, given by the Society of Professional Journalists Northern California Chapter, for her dedication to advancing press rights and government transparency. The chapter noted in its release announcing the award “SPJ is proud to honor LaRoe for her stewardship of our California journalism community, helping connect journalists to attorneys in times of need and remaining vigilant to ensure the public access required by law for all — and especially for journalists.” FAC Honored for press advocacy
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