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The , housed in the Newhouse School of Public Communications, has selected Eric Meyer, editor and publisher of the Marion County Record, as the recipient of its 2025 Free Speech Award. Meyer is honored for his resilience and commitment to local journalism following an unprecedented police raid on his newsroom and family home.

In August 2023, the Record, a weekly newspaper in Kansas, became the focus of an aggressive and unlawful raid by local law enforcement. Officers searched the newspaper’s office, the home of its late publisher Joan Meyer, who was Eric’s mother, and the homes of several staff members. The stress of the raid contributed to Joan Meyer’s death the following day.

The raid followed the paper’s investigative reporting on local officials and a business owner, and the incident quickly drew national attention. It has since become a significant case study in press freedom, due process and the vulnerabilities faced by community newsrooms. Litigation linked to the raid remains ongoing.

“The case of the Marion County Record has become a powerful example of how abuse of the legal system and due process can threaten the First Amendment,” says , director of the Tully Center for Free Speech. “The trauma experienced by the Meyer family and the people of Marion County, Kansas, needs to be recognized.”

Each year, the Tully Center honors a journalist who has faced extraordinary pressure in the course of reporting the news. Past recipients include Maria Ressa, Jason Rezaian and Daphne Caruana Galizia. Meyer joins this group of journalists who have stood firm in the face of threats to press freedom.

Meyer will be recognized during at the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse 3 on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 5 p.m.