FOI Award Named in Keats Honor

FOI Award Named in Keat's Honor

      Jim Keat, a long-time champion of freedom of information issues for newspapers, is being recognized for his dedication. The annual Freedom of Information Award presented by the MDDC Press Association will now be called the James S. Keat Freedom of Information Award.
       "I am very pleased that we can honor him in this way," said Legusta Floyd, president of the MDDC Board of Directors and publisher of The Prince George’s Post. "He has done so much for MDDC and FOI issues."
       Keat is a former Baltimore Sun reporter, assistant managing editor and editorial page coordinator. He spent several years working for the The Sun’s New Delhi bureau, as a correspondent and as bureau chief. He founded and edited Perspective, the Sunday news analysis section of The Sun, in the late 1960s.
      Keat said he got involved in FOI issues because as an editor he was "frustrated by the inability of the people, not just newspapers, to find out what the government is doing."
      It is a natural thing to interest an editor, and a supportive publisher and editor at The Sun helped develop that interest, he added.
      Keat has stayed active in FOI issues as working with the MDDC FOI Subcommittee and as Project Sunshine Chair for the Society of Professional Journalists. He was a leader on the public records audit conducted by the MDDC subcommittee last summer.
      "Jim is very passionate about freedom of information," said FOI Subcommittee Chair Tom Marquardt, managing editor of The (Annapolis) Capital.
      "He has been a leader who has inspired many editors to follow," said Marquardt. "No one in Maryland newspapers has done as much for freedom of information as Jim Keat."
      Keat has been involved in many FOI issues over the years, including the public records, cameras in the courtroom and currently court records access. He was also instrumental in changing the Maryland Open Meetings Act and was honored with a national SPJ award for his work on that issue, according to Marquardt.