The First Amendment Coalition is pleased to announce that it has received major gifts from veteran newspaper owner and publisher Raymond Pryke. The contributions totaling $125,000 will fund FAC’s litigation project, Hotline service and other legal initiatives.
“Raymond Pryke’s generosity is a huge boost to free speech and the public’s right to know,” said Peter Scheer, FAC’s executive director. “Raymond is uniquely committed to defending these rights, and we are extremely grateful to him.”
Pryke is the owner and publisher of Valleywide Newspapers based in the High-Desert community of Hesperia, CA. His interest in publishing began in 1962 with the Apple Valley Observer, which he launched as a vehicle to promote sales for his real estate business. Today Valleywide Newspapers publishes many legally-adjudicated newspapers serving Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties including the Hesperia Resorter, Apple Valley News, County Legal Reporter, Adelanto Bulletin, the Antelope Valley Journal and the Victorville Post Express.
By the ‘70s, Pryke’s growing interest in community affairs, particularly a stint as foreman on a county Grand Jury, made him see the need for more transparency in local government and greater public involvement in civic affairs. To do that Pryke took a lesson from the London’s Fleet Street tabloids he read growing up in East Anglia, England.
“The way to beat corruption is to buy a newspaper and hit them with stories every week,” Pryke explained. Soon the focus of his papers changed from real-estate promotion to anti-corruption crusades.
Pryke is the first to admit that he’s always loved a good fight. At the start of WWII, Pryke, 17, joined the Home Guard, a branch of the British Army. Four years later, in 1943, he boarded the Queen Mary en route to Terrell, Texas, where he learned how to fly fighter planes in preparation for combat duty in the Royal Air Force. In 1944, he transferred to the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm and flew combat missions from aircraft carriers.
After the war, Pryke studied at the Royal Naval Academy, then at Trinity College in the University of Toronto, receiving his B.A. degree in 1949. Soon after, he immigrated to the United States, becoming an American citizen in 1954.
“I couldn’t wait to become a citizen. I liked America and liked Americans. I didn’t plan on doing investigative journalism, but after I served on the Grand Jury, I had to do something about the corruption I found out about. I’m a really independent guy. I listen to people. I like what I do,” Pryke said in a phone interview Friday.
Pryke’s generous donation to FAC bolsters a major fundraising initiative aimed at raising $400,000 for the nonprofit organization’s legal action fund. Pryke’s $125,000 contribution will be increased to $187,500 thanks to matching funds from the Rowland (“Reb”) Rebele and Pat Rebele 2011 Challenge Grant. The Rebeles, long-time FAC supporters, have contributed $100,000 to FAC and pledged a further $100,000 to enhance others’ contributions by 50 percent.
Pryke’s $125,000 gift brings FAC within $45,000 of its ambitious $400,000 fundraising goal. FAC’s legal fund will enable it to expand exponentially its litigation and other legal initiatives, turning up the heat on government agencies and government officials who give lip service to transparency and accountability while, in practice, obstructing people’s exercise of those those rights.-FAC