Nackey S. Loeb School 2022 First Amendment Honorees

Gilles Bissonnette, ACLU-NH’s Legal Director, is this year's Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications' First Amendment Award honoree, and will be saluted by the School on Thursday, October 20, 2022. The annual event honors New Hampshire individuals or groups that have advanced or exercised their First Amendment rights in some special or extraordinary way. Bissonnette was nominated for his work with stakeholders to improve the public’s right of access to information so the public can hold the government accountable, including a successful legal effort to reverse a 27-year-old precedent from 1993 that shielded the personnel files of government employees, including law enforcement, from public view.  

In addition to Bissonnette, New Hampshire Public Radio will be celebrated as recipient of The Nackey S. Loeb School’s Quill & Ink Award, not given annually, but reserved to recognize significant contributions to the First Amendment.  NHPR is being honored for continuing to report the news, even as some of its staff were threatened with violence and had their homes vandalized.

The First Amendment Award Event on October 20 will be from 4pm-5:30pm and will feature guest speaker Jonathan Martin, a senior political correspondent for The New York Times, a political analyst for CNN, and the co-author of the recent New York Times best-seller “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future.”

This event is open to the public, but space is limited, and tickets must be purchased in advance. Tickets are $100.00 each and will include admission to the event, and a copy of Martin’s book. 

The Loeb School’s First Amendment Award judges are Rod Doherty, former executive editor of Foster’s Daily Democrat, Retired NH Supreme Court Justice Richard Galway, Attorney Gregory Sullivan of Malloy & Sullivan, LPC., and previous First Amendment Award recipient Mary DeWinkeleer. 

Past recipients of the Nackey S. Loeb School’s First Amendment Award include former state Attorney General Philip McLaughlin, former Keene Sentinel Executive Editor Thomas Kearney, The Laconia Citizen, former legislator Daniel Hughes, former Dover City Councilor David Scott, Londonderry High School Journalism Adviser Mary Lucas DeWinkeleer, First Amendment attorney William Chapman, ConVal School Board member Gail Pierson Cromwell, The Portsmouth Herald,  David Lang and the Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire, The Telegraph of Nashua, slain journalist James Foley, former Portsmouth Police officer John Connors, Timberlane Regional School Board member Donna Green, open government activist David Saad and the citizens’ group Right to Know New Hampshire, columnist Robert Azzi, the late VA whistleblower Dr. Ed Kois, Keene State College journalism professor Dr. Marianne Salcetti, and Webster, NH residents Tara Gunnigle and Jon Pearson.

For more information about the First Amendment Award Event and the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications, or to purchase tickets, visit www.loebschool.org.