Welter 2022

Weltner Freedom of Information Celebration

2024

We were thrilled to celebrate GFAF’s 30th anniversary and honor Sally Sierer Bethea as our 2024 Charles L. Weltner Freedom of Information Award honoree at our 22nd Weltner Banquet on Oct. 21, 2024, at the Emory Conference Center in Atlanta. As keynote speaker, Bethea shared stories of how, as the first Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, she leveraged Sunshine Laws and the collective power of the people and press to create positive environmental change. Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes introduced Bethea at the banquet.

>> Read the event program, showcasing our speakers and sponsors, and featuring an exclusive drawing from AJC editorial cartoonist and former Weltner honoree Mike Luckovich.

>> Watch the tribute video to Bethea.

>> See the evening in pictures, documented by Krys Alex Photography.

>> Check out videos commemorating GFAF’s three decades of protecting and expanding open government and free speech in Georgia.

About the Award

In the spirit of the late Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles L. Weltner, the annual Weltner Freedom of Information Award honors a person or group whose work has significantly improved freedom of information in Georgia. Justice Weltner was an unyielding champion of government transparency. His final opinion for the Supreme Court of Georgia in Davis et al v. City of Macon (1992) captured his commitment to First Amendment principles:

“This is the last appeal in which I will participate as a member of the Supreme Court of Georgia… Over the past decade, as I see it, our court has breathed life into some old words that have lain dormant within our constitution for most of their century-old existence. The words are: ‘Public officers are the trustees and servants of the people and are at all times amenable to them.’(Constitution of Georgia of 1983, Art. I, Sec. II, Par. I.)

“We have established that this is no empty phrase, but an obligation that is enforceable in a court of law. Public men and women, above all others, must be of good faith. Neither facile excuse nor clever dissimulation can serve in the stead of duty — faithfully performed. Because public men and women are amenable ‘at all times’ to the people, they must conduct the public’s business out in the open.”

 

Nominate

If you would like to nominate someone for our Weltner Award, email us at info@gfaf.org.