DECEMBER 2014

Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook View our profile on LinkedIn View our videos on YouTube

Please Remember NEFAC When Making Charitable Gifts This Year


 
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." 
 
First Amendment 
of U.S. Constitution
NEFAC News











Learn about our annual First Amendment Institute and how you can become one of 25 journalism fellows








Read about our annual awards for journalists, private citizens and First Amendment advocates





Visit KnowNewEngland.org to learn more about FOI and public records access


We welcome contributions to The NEFAC Report from journalists, lawyers, academics or other advocates of government transparency. If you have something to add to the conversation, please let us know. Your stories, experiences and commentaries have broad appeal and value.
 
Submissions can be emailed to: mail@nefirstamendment.org
 
Thank You For Supporting the 
First Amendment, Public's Right to Know

As the year comes to a close, I'm writing to thank you for your support of the New England First Amendment Coalition. With your help, we have worked hard during the last 12 months to protect First Amendment freedoms and the public's right to know. Here's just a sampling of what we accomplished. [More] 
Boston Police Department 
Refuses to Release Spying Records

The Boston Police Department 

embodies the Surveillance Age's chilling twin principles: more power to spy on law-abiding citizens, and less accountability for doing it. That's what we at the Jamaica Plain Gazette and Mission Hill Gazette have learned as our attempts to investigate police spying abuses are stymied by the department's flouting of state public records laws. [More] 
Most Read Blog Posts of 2014

Massachusetts Ruling Reduces Access to Criminal Court Records
In a stark about-face, the highest court of Massachusetts took a step toward reducing access to criminal court records. It reversed its own ruling from 20 years ago - and picked a fight with the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals that could someday be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. [More]


Records Show Officer Involved 

in Accidents Prior to Fatal Crash 

At about 5 p.m. on Aug. 29, 2012, a Westford police officer was racing to a domestic call on the other side of town down Oak Hill Road. Going about 50 in a 30 mph zone on the Westford street, he had his lights flashing, but no siren sounding. [More]
 

Conn. Judge 'Stuns' Legal Community With Injunction

Judge Stephen F. Frazzini is a respected, Yale-educated, former legal assistance lawyer, who in 2003 ruled that jurors' names are public when a prosecutor tried to make them secret. But Frazzini stunned the legal community with a prior restraint order issued from the bench against the Connecticut Law Tribune, which was preparing a story about a custody battle in state Juvenile Court. [More]

    ____________________________________________
   
  Other New England FOI and First Amendment News

  GENERAL
   CONNECTICUT
   MAINE

   MASSACHUSETTS

   NEW HAMPSHIRE  
   RHODE ISLAND
   VERMONT