The New England First Amendment Coalition will honor New Hampshire journalist Damien Fisher with its 2026 Michael Donoghue Freedom of Information Award.
Named after the long-time Vermont reporter, the FOI Award is given each year to a New England journalist or team of journalists for a body of work from the previous calendar year that protects or advances the public’s right to know under federal or state law. Preference is given to those who overcome significant official resistance.
Fisher is a fierce defender of government transparency and regularly uses the New Hampshire Right to Know Law to fight against secrecy. An independent journalist without the resources most newsrooms provide, Fisher often litigates his own public record cases despite considerable resistance.
His recent reporting includes the award-winning investigative story, “What Really Happened to Michael Carney,” a in-depth report on the secrecy surrounding two deaths in the Monadnock region. Fisher’s use of the Right to Know Law last year also resulted in stories about a police chief accused of falsifying records, a corrections officer being reinstated after a questionable use of force and the hiding of evidence by the state’s Department of Corrections.
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Fisher will receive the award at a private ceremony in Boston later this month.
Previous FOI Award recipients are The Boston Globe (2025); Maine Trust for Local News (2024); Nancy West at InDepthNH (2023); the Worcester Telegram & Gazette (2022); The Bangor Daily News (2021); Hearst Connecticut Media Group (2020); the Hartford Courant (2019); Todd Wallack of The Boston Globe (2018); The Sun Journal in Lewiston, Maine (2017); Jenifer McKim of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting (2016); James W. Foley (posthumously), the war correspondent and New Hampshire native killed by the Islamic State (2015); Brent Curtis of the Rutland Herald in Vermont (2014); and Don Stacom of the Hartford Courant (2013).
NEFAC is the region’s leading defender of the First Amendment and open government. The coalition began in 2006 to advance and protect the five freedoms of the First Amendment, including the principle of the public’s right to know. We’re a broad-based organization of people who believe in the power of an informed democratic society.
Our coalition is funded through contributions made by those who value the First Amendment and who strive to keep government accountable. Please make a donation here.
NEFAC appreciates the support of all its donors and contributors. In particular, we would like to recognize the Estate of Gloria L. Negri, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the following Leadership Circle donors: Rhode Island Foundation, The Boston Globe, Paul and Ann Sagan, The Harbus Foundation, Boston University, the Champa Charitable Foundation and the Robertson Foundation. Major Supporters of NEFAC’s work include Hearst Connecticut Media Group, Gravel & Shea PC, the Academy of New England Journalists, Truro News and Patrisha McLean.