The Nancy Monson Spirit of FOI Award award recognizes outstanding work in promoting open government and the public’s right to know. The contest is open to newspaper, broadcast and online media in Texas.
The deadline for submissions for 2025 will be announced soon. Nominations must be for work published or broadcast in calendar year 2024. A nomination can be a single news story or series; an editorial or series of editorials; columns; editorial cartoons; or a community FOI project. There is a limit of one entry per news organization. Entries will be judged in the following size classifications, and up to two entries will be recognized in each class (a winner and an honorable mention, if warranted).
A – News organizations in markets with a population of under 500,000.
AA – News organizations in markets with a population of 500,000 or more.
Entries must be submitted electronically and include the following:
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A letter containing the name of the person or organization nominated and the classification entered, explaining the effort being cited
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Functioning online links or PDFs of pages containing the coverage being entered
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Additional support documents or letters as the entrant deems necessary
Once the call for entries is open, submissions should be emailed to [email protected] with the subject line FOI AWARD. Deadline to be announced soon.