Educatee Printing Law Leader to Head Brechner Freedom of Information Center

Frank LoMonte
Frank LoMonte

The University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications today announced that Frank LoMonte is the new director of the Joseph L. Brechner Heart for Freedom of Data.

The Brechner Heart, located in the Higher, is a non-profit educational eye addressing issues effectually freedom of data, libel, privacy, prior restraints, "Sunshine" laws, access to courts and other First Amendment bug.

LoMonte will be responsible for advancing the Eye'southward mission around liberty of data and the First Amendment and broaden it to address other media-related legal issues, including investigative and digital journalism, new technologies, policy and regulation.

"Frank joins us at a time when the erosion of admission at all levels of government is accelerating and digital technology is altering the media law landscape," said Diane McFarlin, dean of the College.   "We are and so pleased that someone of his stature and experience will be guiding our efforts to build on the Brechner heritage, while broadening the middle'southward telescopic."

LoMonte has been the executive managing director of the Student Printing Police force Center (SPLC) in Washington, D.C. since 2008.  During his tenure, he launched a number of major programming initiatives, including:

  • Organizing the "Tinker Bout," a nationwide First Subpoena sensation tour featuring civil-liberties icon Mary Beth Tinker, which, during the 2013-fourteen school yr, reached more than 200,000 people across 41 states.
  • Leading the charge to enact reform legislation protecting students and educators against institutional retaliation for their journalistic work. The "New Voices" movement has resulted in enactment of fortified legal protections in Illinois, Maryland and Northward Dakota, with bills pending in xi states, and has left behind student-led grassroots organizations in each country to proceed lookout over abuses of journalists' rights.
  • Launching the Agile Voice projection to raise awareness of the impact of school censorship on leadership development opportunities for young women, and creating a paid fellowship program for college undergraduates across the country to design replicable "press liberty service projects" amplifying the voices of young women in their communities.

"I'm excited and inspired by Dean McFarlin'southward vision that the Brechner Center can serve equally the nation's preeminent source of scholarship identifying the barriers that inhibit journalism," LoMonte said.  "With these insights, we can map the way toward solutions and join the stakeholders who can make alter."

Earlier joining the SPLC, LoMonte good law with Sutherland Asbill and Brennan LLP in Atlanta and clerked for federal judges on the Northern District of Georgia and the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

Prior to embarking on his legal career, he was an award-winning investigative journalist and political columnist. He was the capitol contributor for the Florida Times Union (Jacksonville), Washington correspondent for Morris News Service and the Atlanta bureau chief for Morris.

LoMonte received his B.A. in political science in 1994 from Georgia Country University and graduated magna cum laude in 2000 from the University of Georgia School Of Law where he was a Georgia Constabulary Review senior editor.  He was the Otis Brumby Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the Georgia Law School in spring-summer 2014 and has been a lecturer since 2015 in the University of Georgia Washington Program, instruction a course for undergraduates on "Police force of Social Media."

He will join The Brechner Heart this summer.

The College of Journalism and Communications is also home to the Marion B. Brechner Commencement Amendment Project, directed past Brechner Eminent Scholar in Mass Communication Dirt Calvert. The First Amendment Project is defended to current and contemporary bug affecting the First Amendment freedoms of speech, printing, thought, assembly and petition.

Posted: March 29, 2017
Category: Higher News, Uncategorized
Tagged as: Frank LoMonte, Joseph Fifty. Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Marion B. Brechner Offset Amendment Project, SPIC