The Penlight Prize ∙ Freedom of the Press Foundation

Eligibility

The submission must be substantially based on documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act or other public records laws.
It also must be available free of charge, with no paywall.
The award can be divided equally among up to four co-authors.
Applications must be submitted by the author(s) themselves. Third-party nominations won't be accepted.
Articles must have been published on or after Sept. 1, 2025.
Submissions accepted until Sept. 1, 2026.

Apply for the Penlight Prize

This form requires JavaScript to submit. Please enable JavaScript and reload the page, or email your name, article link, and a one-paragraph summary of the article and how it uses FOIA or public records to penlight@freedom.press. We'll follow up with any additional questions.

Name of journalist(s): Name of publication or platform: Link to article: Does the submitted article rely significantly on records obtained through FOIA or state public records laws? Is the submitted article unpaywalled? (Prompts to enter an email address for access are not considered paywalls.) Provide a one-paragraph summary of the article and how it uses FOIA or public records. Provide any additional information you'd like us to consider, e.g., challenges you faced in reporting the story, any fees incurred, or the impact the story has had. Email address of journalist: Neither I nor any immediate family members work for FPF or serve on its board of directors. I am an author of the story being submitted. Check if you would like to receive news releases from Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF).

Key dates

Sept. 1, 2026: Applications close
Oct. 15, 2026: Winner notified
Nov. 12, 2026: Winner presented with award in NYC

FAQ

What qualifies as a paywall?

Any article that requires payment to view will be considered a paywall and will make the article ineligible for this award.

What types of journalism qualify for this award?

We will consider written news articles published online by an established journalism organization on or after Sept. 1, 2025. Videos, podcasts, graphics, and other multimedia content that are included within a written article are acceptable.

This award will recognize reporting based on records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests or through state, local, territorial, and tribal public records act requests to agencies in the United States. The judges will preference reporting in which the underlying documents are made available for review by readers, but recognize that there are rare circumstances in which the documents can only be described but not published.

Must the article be outside of the paywall continuously?

The spirit of the award is to recognize materials that are made freely available to the public. With that in mind, we prefer materials that were originally published without paywalls and stay outside of paywalls in perpetuity.

To qualify for the award, articles must be outside of a paywall when accessed by judges during the assessment.

Does the entire news site need to be outside of a paywall?

No, the news organization may use paywalls for the rest of the site, but the paywall must not extend to the nominated news article or any published FOIA documents associated with that news article.

FPF encourages news organizations to adopt this paywall policy for all articles based primarily on government records.

What about co-written articles?

In the event of multiple authors on a news article, the award shall be split evenly among the authors, and all co-authors will be listed on the award page. Up to four co-authors may be brought to New York City for the award ceremony. Only one writer may be asked to serve as a judge for the 2027 awards.

Have another question not answered here?

Contact us at [email protected].

Eligibility

Apply for the Penlight Prize

Key dates

FAQ

Judges