Ken Ward Jr. Photo by Mark Schleifstein

The Stolberg Award, an engraved plaque, was presented in October 2004 at SEJ's 14th annual conference in Pittsburgh to Ken Ward Jr.

Ken was honored for his leadership as chair of SEJ's First Amendment task force, and for his stalwart volunteer work helping to organize the Pittsburgh annual conference. Since its inception in 2002, the task force has helped spotlight restrictions to sunshine laws and fought to keep public records public. SEJ's voice is regularly heard both in Washington and within the larger journalism community, and SEJ members are kept up-to-date through our WatchDog TipSheet. As if that weren't enough, Ken organized an ambitious airborne tour of mountaintop removal coal mining for the 2004 Pittsburgh conference, which unfortunately had to be canceled because of weather and plane mechanical problems. He also moderated a session there on FOIA.