Peter Weitzel
Sunshine – Antidote to Government Secrecy
In his presentation, Peter Weitzel will focus on the quantum increase in U.S. government secrecy since Sept. 11, 2001, the concomitant loss of civil liberties, the deepening loss of public con dence in government, and the e orts, led by the media and NGOs, to push back, pushing for greater access to government information.
Peter Weitzel is the Freedom of Information Coordinator for the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, based in Washington, D.C. He is a former Managing editor of The Miami Herald, where he worked as a reporter and editor for nearly 40 years. He helped to found the Florida First Amendment Foundation, serving as its president from 1985 to 1995, and also helped to launch the National Freedom of Information Coalition and served as its second president. He remains on the board of the Florida foundation. After retiring from The Herald in 1995, he taught at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, at the University of North Carolina journalism school, and at Duke Law School. He also served as executive director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, an organization that investigates cases of possible wrongful conviction. In January 2004, he became coordinator for CJOG, an alliance of 30 journalism-related organizations working together on open government issues.