New $25K ‘Penlight’ journalism award honors paywall-free FOIA reporting

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: New York, July 21, 2026 — Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) is proud to announce the launch of the Penlight Prize for excellence in paywall-free public records reporting. The prize awards $25,000 to an outstanding piece of journalism that was made free to the public, and is substantially based on government records received via state and local public records laws or the Freedom of Information Act. Submissions will be reviewed by an all-star panel of judges with extensive experience both in public records reporting and advocacy for transparency laws. The award was inspired by FPF’s partnership with Wired to make all articles substantially based on FOIA or public-records-based reporting paywall-free. This year, our judges will be: Kate Doyle , senior analyst at th…