- This event has passed.
Influence pedaling in the mayor’s office. Billions in missing taxpayer funds. Unexplained police shooting and cold case murders. New York reporters are using Freedom of Information Laws to expose government secrecy and all brand of shady doings. Yet journalists face rising obstacles as FOIL requests are denied and delayed at unprecedented levels.
Amid such challenges, how can you use these FOIL laws to extract the facts and write stories that matter? Find out at a panel discussion sponsored by the Deadline Club, the NYC chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists.
The panel will feature the state’s Open Government czar and top award-winning investigative journalists, who include members of a newly formed media coalition organizing to oppose growing government secrecy. Speakers will offer how-to guidance, front-line tales, and a call to media arms to keep public records public.
MODERATOR: Jessica Seigel, adjunct professor at the New York University journalism school and former Chicago Tribune national correspondent
SPEAKERS:
- Alyssa Katz, deputy editor with THE CITY and formerly on the New York Daily News editorial board, who specializes in how big money, corporations and institutions impact New York City neighborhoods
- Grace Rauh, NY1 political reporter, host of NY1’s “Off Topic/On Politics” podcast, and the lead plaintiff in a FOIA lawsuit against the mayor relating to influence-pedaling.
- Matthew Leish, assistant general counsel at Tribune Publishing Company/New York Daily News
- Micah Morrison, chief investigative reporter for Judicial Watch and formerly with The Wall Street Journal who specializes in FOIA litigation, investigating the NYPD, and political corruption
- Robert Freeman, executive director of the New York State Committee on Open Government