Bunting Award

The Washington Coalition for Open Government is presenting its 2023 Kenneth F. Bunting Award to a collaboration of reporters covering the ongoing story of the state legislature’s efforts to withhold public records under a new definition of “legislative privilege.”

The Bunting Award recognizes journalists and media outlets for work that uses or advances Washington state’s open government laws, or educates citizens about them. The award honors the memory of the late Ken Bunting, an executive editor and associate publisher with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer who helped found WashCOG in 2002. He also served as executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition from 2010 to 2014, the year he died.

Shauna Sowersby, a McClatchy reporter based in Olympia, and Joseph O’Sullivan, a reporter at Seattle-based Crosscut, worked closely to examine public records and conduct interviews that revealed how lawmakers were invoking the “legislative privilege” exemption for deliberative documents and embarrassing correspondence. They examined the influence of lobbying agencies (whose communications could also be hidden under this claim) and identified an executive branch agency that had a “legislative privilege” policy on their books — but revoked it after it was exposed by the reporters.

The reporting by Sowersby and O’Sullilvan also informed the public about the importance of transparency in government, and how this new definition and practice of “legislative privilege” could damage Washington’s strong access laws.