Vermont’s largest newspaper has been honored as a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing for its campaign to reform the state’s access to public records laws.
The Pulitzers were announced on Monday, and The Burlington Free Press was chosen as one of three finalists in the editorial writing category, along with Bloomberg News and Florida’s Tampa Bay Times. The judges did not choose a winner from among the finalists.
The judges praised the Free Press for an editorial campaign that resulted in the state’s first reform of open government laws in 35 years, reducing legal obstacles that helped shroud the work of government officials.
The writers of the editorials were editorial page editor Aki Soga and Mike Townsend, the paper’s executive editor.