The Post-Star (Glens Falls, N.Y.)

By: After eight years of the most secretive presidential administration in the modern era, followed by a president who signed open government orders in his first hours on the job, there may be a certain amount of Freedom of Information (FOI) fatigue in the U.S. The Sunshine Week project of the American Society of News Editors has lost its funding and its full-time coordinator, and the cause of transparency seems to be losing its urgency.

But the Post-Star is a bracing reminder that FOI and open records aren't only, or even mostly, about Washington and investigative journalists. In its editorials, blogs and online help centers, the Glens Falls newspaper reminds us constantly that it is ordinary citizens who most need open government to ensure their rights, their property, their government benefits. By selecting Post-Star Editorial Page Editor Mark Mahoney as the winner for editorial, the Pulitzer Prize jurists showed they understood that fundamental truth.

Or as Mahoney puts it: "The government belongs to the people, and there's just no reason for them to keep any secrets ? who the hell are they?" His aim: to give citizens the information "to empower themselves."