David Cuillier recently received Western Washington University’s Alumni Achievement Award for his impact on the field of freedom of information. At an on-campus ceremony on May 10, Dr. Cuillier and several other alumni were honored for demonstrated impact in their respective fields, with Cuillier being the only journalism alum recognized.

Cuillier served as president of the National Freedom of Information Coalition from 2019-2023 and as national president of the Society of Professional Journalists from 2013-2014. He is the founding editor of The Journal of Civic Information, and recently became the director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He has also testified before Congress three times regarding the Federal Freedom of Information Act.

Before any of that, though, he was just another student at Western Washington University. In his time at Western, Cuillier studied journalism and spent four years working on The Front, eventually serving as editor-in-chief.

“I got so much out of the journalism program there at Western,” he said. “Just this mindset of questioning authority, always being curious, always looking for how we can help the public be better informed.”

Cuillier arrived a day early for the ceremony to speak to members of Western’s SPJ club in a fireside chat-style event organized by club president Sophie Cadran.

“The session was really conversational,” Cadran said, “just very informal. He was definitely interested in just getting to know the students and our backgrounds, and also answering our questions to the best of his ability.”

Cadran said that one highlight of the event was Cuillier describing his experiences giving Congressional testimony.

“It sounds like such an intimidating thing, but he made it seem so nonchalant,” Cadran said. “He’s very humble.”

Indeed, while Cuillier was appreciative of being formally recognized by Western, he was also quick to redirect the spotlight onto others, putting particular emphasis on journalists working in the field today as reporters and editors. He noted that much of his work these days takes place “behind the scenes,” and likened his relationship to currently working journalists to how a pit crew might aim to support a racecar driver.

“That’s really how I see my role,” Cuillier said, “to help journalists to do what they’re there to do, and that’s to inform the public. And a big part of that is through getting government records.”

After graduating from Western in 1990, Cuillier spent a decade working as a journalist. It was during that time that his passion for freedom of information was sparked.

“The government didn’t want me to find out some things,” Cuillier said. “That really frustrated me.”

That frustration drove him to study freedom of information at the graduate level at Washington State University, where he received his master’s in 2003 and doctorate in 2006. Cuillier has since put those degrees to good use working to hold public agencies accountable.

“Tons of empirical studies show the power of [access to government information] and how important it is, and if we lose it, the dangers that come from that,” he said.

Unfortunately, public records laws have been weakening — both nationally and in Washington specifically— for decades. As a recent Cascadia Daily News column noted, the list of “exception categories” to Washington’s state Public Records Act — referring to situations in which government officials can get around having to provide requested records in a timely manner — has increased, since the act was first passed in 1972, by 650.

“I’ve been trying to focus nationally to move the needle to change the direction of information flow, which is all headed toward secrecy,” Cuillier said. “It’s getting harder and harder for [journalists] to do their jobs. Government agencies are just ghosting journalists now. They don’t even say, ‘No comment’ — they don’t return their calls or emails.”

In such cases, Cuillier said, journalists often only have one tool at their disposal: Public records laws. It’s why he’s spent such a large portion of his career fighting for the preservation and strengthening of these laws — and also why he doesn’t plan on giving up the fight anytime soon.

“It’s a lot of work, trying to make a difference,” Cuillier said. “Trying to save democracy. “But if we don’t do it, who else is going to?”

The idea of needing to “save democracy” could strike some as melodramatic. But a democracy is a thing made up of principles and institutions, the steady erosion of which could well bring about its demise. The right of the public — and the media — to access government records in a reasonably timely manner is a fundamental principle of American democracy, and it’s been eroding for some time now.

Today more than ever, the people working to preserve these democratic principles and institutions are essential in our society. It’s good to celebrate them when we get the chance.