NEFAC Luncheon Honoring Balboni, Citizen Award Winners Set for April 10 at Seaport Boston Hotel

PRESS RELEASE 

CONTACT Rose Cavanagh | 401.331.7209 | rosecavanagh.nefac@gmail.com

BOSTON — The New England First Amendment Coalition awards luncheon whited out by the February blizzard will be held April 10 at the Seaport Boston Hotel.

Philip Balboni, NECN founder and GlobalPost co-founder, will receive the third annual Stephen Hamblett First Amendment Award. Inaugural right-to-know awards will go to a retired New Hampshire firefighter and a Connecticut journalist.

David Lang, president of  The Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire, will receive the Citizen Right to Know Award for dogged work uncovering Local Government Center documents that won insurance refunds for state public employees.

The Freedom of Information Award will go to Don Stacom of  The Hartford Courant for a series of articles that prompted a shakeup of the New Britain, Conn., Police Department.
Tickets can be purchased on NEFAC’s Web site. Take two seats at one of our tables and earn a no-cost training session on public access issues for your staff.

“One of the surest ways of benefiting from our right-to-know organization is to tap into the expertise we can offer your staff on information-gathering techniques,” said NEFAC Executive Director Rosanna Cavanagh.

She said the sessions for NEFAC member organizations will be scheduled for this fall at locations to be designated around New England.

The awards luncheon is supported by the Providence Journal Charitable Foundation, the Presenting Sponsor of the event; The Boston Globe, a Leadership Circle sponsor; and Bingham McCutchen LLP, a Liberty Circle sponsor.

NEFAC was formed in 2006 to advance and protect the Five Freedoms of the First Amendment, including the principle of the public’s right to know. We’re a broad-based organization of people who believe in the power of an informed democratic society. Our members include lawyers, journalists, historians, librarians, academics and private citizens.