T&G to receive First Amendment Award for investigative reporting on city police records

A local newspaper has many important functions, but nothing is as important as fulfilling its watchdog role, making sure that public institutions are accountable to taxpayers, that public information is indeed made public.

It's also the most difficult thing a news organization, and especially an individual reporter, can do. On many difficult and complex stories, there are powerful interests who would prefer that the truth remain hidden. Sometimes, these are the same people reporters have to deal with every day to do their jobs.

Brad Petrishen of the Telegram & Gazette is a fearless reporter who has shown time and again that he is willing to take on these difficult stories. It's primarily due to his tenacious nature and thorough, professional approach to his job that the Telegram & Gazette is about to receive a prestigious regional award.

It's the New England First Amendment Award, from the New England Newspaper & Press Association.

The award recognizes the T&G's long but ultimately successful struggle to get the City of Worcester to turn over police records.

A refresher: In 2018, the T&G requested records of police investigations of past allegations of misconduct by city officers. The city initially indicated that it would release the records but reversed course after Brad reported a civil rights lawyer's allegations of misconduct within the Police Department. Now, the city said it would not release any records involving officers who were facing civil rights lawsuits.

The newspaper sued, and in 2022, a Superior Court judge ruled that the city had acted in bad faith by illegally withholding the records on meritless legal grounds.

The judge ordered the city to pay $5,000 in punitive damages — the first-ever such award under a 2016 legislative update to the Massachusetts Public Records Law — plus $100,000 in legal fees.

After a state appeals court ruled that the judge should reconsider the amount of legal fees, the city ultimately agreed to pay a total of $180,000 to settle the case.

This case was an important victory not just for the T&G but for the principles behind the state's public records law, which is ineffective if a public entity is allowed to exert "exemptions that are as broad as the day is long," as lawyer Jeffrey Pyle argued.

But it's a victory that simply would not have happened if not for the determination of many individuals: The leadership of the T&G who preceded me, in particular former assistant managing editor Gerard Russell and former executive editor David Nordman, for their willingness to take on this fight.

Pyle, the Prince-Lobel lawyer who spent more than three years working steadfastly and brilliantly on the case.

And especially Brad, for the courage that he showed in this case — and routinely shows in his role as an investigative reporter. Brad's a person who will always go where a story takes him, not for the benefit of a particular source but in the interest of the truth.

And these days, while there is information all around us, it seems that truth is only getting more difficult to come by.

I've been in journalism for about 25 years, which is really not that long. Still, I remember days as a local news reporter when the answers to basic questions could be had by calling a city or town department head who had ready access to the information.

Today, many local governments seem to be borrowing the model of corporations when it comes to handling even routine news media requests, with everything going through a spokesperson. Under this model, the people who are actually in charge of making decisions are rarely heard from. Questions for them are often requested in writing — and even then, the responses may fail to address the actual questions.

The approach seems to have less to do with ensuring accurate and timely dissemination of information, and more to do with controlling what gets out and ensuring it gets the most positive spin possible. It's not a service to the public.

It's why reporters we need like Brad, who are willing to persistently ask difficult questions, now more than ever.

And it's why we're all proud to receive this award.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Telegram & Gazette to receive award for Worcester police record stories