First Amendment Coalition press education specialists Paloma Esquivel and Thadeus Greenson lead a session on the California Public Records Act during a free Watchdog Workshop for working and student journalists in the San Diego area earlier this month. Photo: Rick Eaton
Journalists from newsrooms and campuses throughout the greater San Diego area packed a National City classroom earlier this month to learn about freedom of information laws, press rights and get real world tips for delivering the watchdog reporting communities need.
Organized by the First Amendment Coalition and sponsored and fittingly hosted by Southwestern College, whose The Sun student newspaper took home Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s highest honor for print media in 2025, the daylong workshop was FAC’s second of 2026. The event drew more than three-dozen attendees from all corners of the county, including eight working newsrooms and six colleges, providing a rare intergenerational networking and learning experience for a diverse group of journalists.
FAC began offering this series of Watchdog Workshops as a part of our commitment to bringing specialized training and support to journalists at a time when there are too few of them and too many newsgathering obstacles.
We kicked off the day’s packed program with a 90-minute session on using the California Public Records Act to fuel in-depth reporting. The session included an overview of the law and practical tips for how to navigate delays and deal with recalcitrant agencies.
The next session — a panel discussion moderated by FAC Press Education Specialist Paloma Esquivel — utilized local expertise to highlight how publicly available records can shed light on immigration enforcement. The panel featured inewsource reporters Sofia Mejías-Pascoe and Jake Kincaid, and Daylight San Diego co-founder Kate Morrissey. Sofia talked about how federal habeas petitions filed by people in detention can reveal details of their arrest, as well as the conditions of their confinement. Kate told attendees about her lawsuit to obtain body worn camera footage from police at immigration enforcement operations. Jake, meanwhile, shared his experience and lessons learned from requesting and reviewing hundreds of emergency call logs from privately run detention centers. In addition to moderating, Paloma also talked about how a new state law co-sponsored by FAC will make audio recordings from those calls and other records public as of Jan. 1.
Next up, FAC tapped the expertise of ProPublica public records specialist Reese Dunklin and former New York Times senior counsel Al-Amyn Sumar to teach a session on the federal Freedom of Information Act, with both offering real-world tips, like “be pleasantly pushy” and, when possible, target requests to smaller agencies. After a FAC-sponsored lunch, FAC Legal Director David Loy talked press rights, explaining how journalists’ right to record varies based on setting, and gave an overview of the California Shield Law.
The second-to-last session of the day looked at obtaining public employee misconduct records, and was followed by a session that provided an overview of police records, highlighting Voice of San Diego’s recent successful CPRA lawsuit against the county, with senior investigative reporter Lisa Halverstadt walking us through the details. The day wrapped up with an overview of how to access police records, with David telling attendees about the lawsuit he led to successfully fight for the release of use-of-force and misconduct records in the controversial local arrest of Marcus Evans.
The training was offered free of charge for all journalists and student journalists to attend. FAC also worked to eliminate any barriers to attendance by providing free coffee, snacks and lunch, and working with Southwestern College to waive parking fees. Such efforts are only possible thanks to the generous donors who make our work possible.
If you’re interested in learning more about FAC’s workshops for journalists or seeing one hosted in your community, check out our education page or email our education team at education[at]firstamendmentcoalition[dot]org. And if this daylong training sounds like something you’d like to donate to support, click here.