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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," an 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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