From the Connecticut Law Tribune. Read the full editorial here.
Wednesday, October 16, 2025
Connecticut’s pioneering Freedom of Information Act, which is considered by many to be the best in the nation, turns 50 this month.
It came as an antidote to the public’s loss of trust in government during the poisonous Watergate scandal, replete with presidential enemies lists, misuse of the IRS and Justice Department for political ends, secret plotting and “dirty tricks” from a White House bent on increasing its power by fair means or foul.
Gov. Ella Grasso responded by assuring the taxpaying public that its ability to know how its government was running would not be hidden. Access to public documents, and to attend public meetings of government bodies, would be upheld and defended by a newly created Freedom of Information Commission.
It was designed to be more than feel-good window dressing. In meritorious cases, staff attorneys at the commission had the resources and the legal authority to uphold the public’s right to know. In other states with freedom of information laws, people have the right to go to court to enforce their rights – if they have the time and money to hire private lawyers and pay for court battles and appeals.
The act did not automatically instill in all public officials a willingness to hand over public documents or let the public freely observe how they went about applying and enforcing the law. Many resisted being openly accountable to ordinary members of the general public or the media.
This inherent tension over what the public should be allowed to see or hear generated a busy workload for the FOI commissioners and attorneys.
Some 28 exemptions created grounds to withhold information, and have been invoked with varying degrees of good faith and reasonableness.
The original Executive Director and Counsel for the FOIC was Mitchell Pearlman, a pleasant, personable and persistent defender and advocate for FOI. A law professor and ambassador for good government, Pearlman has worked for the U.S. Department of State, consulting in nations worldwide.
The FOI Act wasn’t universally popular. In the go-along-to-get-along atmosphere of the Connecticut Senate and House, lawmakers were often reluctant to fully fund the FOIC or to oppose weakening the act, if doing so created difficulties for their peers and pals. Connecticut Supreme Court justices opined that public officials should be shielded from embarrassment.
People who supported the idea of open government formed the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information, which could lobby the lawmakers. A sister non-profit, the Connecticut Foundation for Open Government, raises awareness of First Amendment and government accountability issues.
The annual CFOG high school essay contest has grown impressively in participation from students statewide, revealing their intellect, aptitude and often stunning insight.
Every five years CFOG honors a national or international figure with its Walter Cronkite award. Recipients have included Bob Woodward, First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams and Judy Woodruff of PBS NewsHour.
In April, CFOG honored Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa, at Hartford’s Mark Twain House and Museum. She created the Philippine news broadcast outlet Rappler in opposition to strongman Rodrigo Duterte, whose rose to power on a vow to “clean up” the cities. His regime’s tactics were extrajudicial killings of six thousand suspected drug dealers, addicts and street children.
Ressa’s book, “How to Stand Up to a Dictator,” details how the explosion of social media disinformation and political violence paved the way for Duterte’s control of the Philippines.
She noted Duterte is in a prison complex in the Hague, awaiting trial before the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, “And I am here in Hartford.”