Power to the People: Unlocking Government For the Public, Press & the blogs
Awards

Beacon Award

The Beacon Award, established at the first Assembly in 1995, recognizes those who exemplify the spirit of First Amendment freedoms, sometimes at considerable personal sacrifice.

Typical areas of concern are access to public meetings, public records and courts, defense of citizens' rights to speak, defense of journalists' rights, and defense of the right to "blow the whistle" and alert the public to matters of common concern.

Darkness Award

The Darkness Award is presented to a person or organization that has shown blatant disdain for the principles of open government.

Bill Farr Award

The Bill Farr Award is given each year to an individual who has performed exemplary work in the arena of open government. Presented jointly by The California First Amendment Coalition and The California Society of Newspaper Editors, the award is given in honor of former Los Angeles Herald Examiner Reporter Bill Farr, who went to jail in 1971 after citing the shield law and refusing to reveal sources of a leak in the infamous Charles Manson Case.

Click here to see last year's recipients