The Connecticut General Assembly is trying to exert more control over CT-N TV coverage of state government proceedings under a new request for proposals for a new five-year contract, raising protests freedom-of-information advocates.
The issue was Topic A at a midday meeting Wednesday of the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information—a group that has been "working for open, accountable government and a free press since 1955," according to its website.
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The Connecticut Council of Freedom of Information is asking all candidates for legislative seats to take the “Public Official’s Pledge for Open and Accountable Government,” and is receiving responses from those who intend to do so.
“A successful democracy requires open, transparent, and accountable government,” CCFOI President Daniel Klau said. “Yet, freedom of information and the public’s right to know about Connecticut state and municipal governments have been under increasing attack in recent years.”
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Read More… from CCFOI courting state candidates to sign freedom-of-information pledge
The Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information had reason to celebrate at its annual meeting this month. It is the 60th anniversary of the group’s founding by Connecticut journalists seeking to protect the public’s right to know, a right not always appreciated or understood by the public, or by some public servants at every level of government who prefer to perform many of their functions away from the prying eyes of the taxpayer.
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Read More… from Connecticut: 60 years fighting for open government
HARTFORD — A bipartisan bill that seeks greater accountability and transparency from the operators of the state's 22 public charter schools got resounding approval in both the Senate and the House Tuesday and will now move to the governor's desk.
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Read More… from Connecticut – Charter School Transparency Bill Clears The Senate And House
Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy, Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman and state Comptroller Kevin Lembo — a card carrying FOI advocate — have signed the Freedom of Information Pledge proffered by the nonprofit advocacy group Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information. It took several weeks for Malloy to decide to sign on. Lembo asked immediately, “where do I sign?”
But too few have.
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Read More… from Forum: Too few Connecticut legislators sign FOI pledge
A pledge circulated by advocates of government transparency to garner support for the state’s Freedom of Information Act has yielded additional signatures since it was reissued earlier this month.
None of the latest round of signatures came from New London or Windham counties.
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Read More… from FOIA pledge garners more signatures, but none locally
It’s a big question really. Why would seven judges decide that the police can keep information about crime secret from the American public? That is essentially what the state Supreme Court did July 7.
Before becoming Supreme Court justices, four of the seven who decided the case were either prosecutors or city attorneys, one was an FBI agent — species not prone to informing the public. The justice who wrote the 27-page opinion, Richard Robinson, (there are no concurring or dissenting opinions) worked as a city lawyer for Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy.
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The state Supreme Court issued a ruling Monday that restricts the amount of information police are required to release about arrests, prompting fears among advocates of open government that the public will not have access to important information about crimes.
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Read More… from Connecticut Supreme Court ruling restricts release of arrest information
A police chief, a state senator, an FOI Commission employee and two journalists have won the annual open government awards from the nonprofit Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information, which has been advocating for freedom of information for six decades.
Blogger and Digital First Media columnist Andy Thibault received the Stephen A. Collins Award for his dogged pursuit on virtually every FOI battlefront in the past year. Thibault was instrumental in ensuring that the clemency hearing of convicted murderer Bonnie Foreshaw proceeded in public, according to the CCFOI.
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Connecticut's Freedom of Information Commission was asked Friday to reconsider how poor a prison inmate must be to obtain public documents for free.
Derrick Taylor, a 43-year-old inmate serving an 80-year sentence for a 1992 murder outside a Hartford bar, is requesting several thousand pages of documents from the state Department of Correction related to operations of Northern Correctional Institution, where he is housed. The documents include commissary contracts and details about the prison's ventilation and television systems.
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Read More… from Connecticut inmate contests $200 document fee
