Paul K. McMasters is one of the nation's leading authorities on First Amendment and freedom-of-information issues. He joined the Freedom Forum in 1992 after 33 years in daily journalism. Since 1995, he has served as the First Amendment ombudsman. In that position, he works to educate and inform about First Amendment issues that arise in Congress, the courts, the media and other areas of public life.

McMasters speaks and writes frequently on all aspects of First Amendment rights and values, in particular free speech, free press, censorship, journalism ethics and access to government information. He is an expert resource for the news media and has appeared on NBC's “Today” show, PBS’s “NewsHour,” CNN’s “Larry King Live,” “Crossfire,” “Burden of Proof” and “Talk Back Live,” MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News Channel and Court TV.

He has testified before a number of government commissions and congressional committees, including the House Judiciary Committee; the U.S. Senate Sub-Committee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information; the Moynihan Commission on government secrecy; and the House Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology.

McMasters is active in a number of press groups. He has served as the national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, the nation's largest and most broad-based press organization and as president of the SDX Foundation, the educational arm of SPJ. In November 2002, he was elected president of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. He also served four years as the National Freedom of Information Chair for SPJ.

In addition to the boards of the SDX Foundation and VCOG, he serves on the Media Institute First Amendment Advisory Council, the John E. Moss Foundation board of directors, the board of editors for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, the editorial board of the Newspaper Research Journal and the Freedom of Information committees of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists.

McMasters began his journalism career at the Springfield, Mo., newspapers in 1960, working his way up to editor of the morning paper over the next 19 years. In 1979, he was named managing editor of The Coffeyville (Kan.) Journal. He came to USA TODAY in 1982 as the national daily was starting up and was serving as associate editor of the editorial page there when he moved to the Freedom Forum in 1992 as executive director of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University.

As the First Amendment Center’s ombudsman, he is based at the Freedom Forum’s World Center in Arlington, Va. The First Amendment Center, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., also has offices in Arlington.

Among his many awards: The John Peter and Anna Catherine Zenger First Amendment Award, presented by the University of Arizona for lifetime achievement in First Amendment and freedom-of-information work, and the Wells Key, the Society of Professional Journalists' highest honor. He is a charter member of the National Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame.

McMasters writes a column for the First Amendment Center Online and has had numerous articles published in newspapers, magazines, journals and books, including a chapter titled “A First Amendment Perspective on Public Journalism” in Mixed News: The Public/Civic/Communitarian Journalism Debate (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, publisher). His essay, “Free Speech versus Civil Discourse: Where Do We Go From Here?” was selected for inclusion in the college reader, Ten Things Every American Government Student Should Read (Allyn and Bacon).

Charter member of the National Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame.