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Brechner Center’s 2026 Freedom of Information Award
April 20 @ 11:30 am - 1:00 pm
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Monday, April 20th from 11:30 pm – 1:00 pm
with Jason Leopold, Senior Investigative Reporter at Bloomberg News
Please register by 6 pm Monday, April 13th
Jason Leopold, senior reporter for Bloomberg News and government-described “FOIA Terrorist” is this year’s winner of the Brechner Freedom of Information Award for his tenacity and passion in acquiring public records. The award is administered by the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.
Leopold was selected among 27 entries representing the nation’s best public-records journalism. He has filed thousands of Freedom of Information Act requests through two decades of reporting. Not only does Leopold break news through FOIA, but he shares what he finds with the public and other reporters, including through a weekly email newsletter and the podcast Disclosure.
“The breadth of this work, and the impact on who Leopold is investigating, is staggering,” wrote one of the three judges, Francisco Vara-Orta, trainer and director of diversity and inclusion for Investigative Reporters and Editors. “He is the blueprint for strong open records reporting and not being scared to go to court with resources he has behind him. He also shares his expertise with other journalists regularly so he pays it forward in democratizing best practices beyond his outlet.”
Leopold has been noted as the most prolific individual FOIA litigant in the nation. Last year, he filed 17 FOIA lawsuits to compel agencies to provide public records. He has testified before Congress regarding FOIA and is a frequent speaker and trainer at journalism conferences.
He also has been a recipient of the 2023 Gerald Loeb award for investigative reporting, a 2022 George Polk award for health reporting and he has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting. In 2016, Leopold was awarded the FOI award from IRE and was inducted into the National Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame.
Leopold’s newsletters range from how the Air Force named its next fighter jet “F-47” to the cost of the huge USDA Trump and Lincoln banners to the challenge for the Department of Interior when the Trump administration renamed a famous mountain. He has obtained exclusive records, including a cache of 18,000 emails from Jeffrey Epstein’s personal Yahoo account that anchored an ambitious investigative series about the disgraced financier, including one that resulted in the firing of the UK ambassador to Washington, and another that uncovered an abandoned federal money-laundering probe.
DETAILS
- Mon, April 13th at 6 pm – Registration deadline
- Mon, April 20th – Luncheon at Institute of Culinary Arts at Eastside High School
- 11:30 – Lunch
- 12:00 – Presentation begins
Advance Registration Required
Due to enhanced security in public schools, The Florida Free Speech Forum now requires event attendees to register in advance. Proof of identity may also be required upon entry to the Institute of Culinary Arts at Eastside High School. In addition, the number of attendees may be limited by the capacity of the venue.
REGISTRATION
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