It has been reported that the Mexican government plans to shut down that nation’s highly respected National Institute for Access to Information (INAI), the country’s Freedom of Information (FOI) agency. The responsibility for guaranteeing access to government information will then presumably fall to government departments subject to presidential control. In other words, a case of the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse.
INAI was modeled in significant part on the Connecticut’s FOI Commission. Mexico studied the Connecticut law and its commission and learned from our successes and failures.
Unfortunately what Mexico is now experiencing with the likely closing of INAI has been happening, to one degree or another, in many countries throughout the world – including supposedly democratic ones. The United States has not been immune to this threat. Nor has Connecticut.
For example, it often takes our federal government (which has no independent FOI enforcement agency) years to process even a simple request for information and in many cases government agencies deny requests with questionable claims of exemptions. The only option then for a disappointed requester is to go to the expense of filing a lawsuit, which in itself can take years to resolve. And in Connecticut, numerous unnecessary exemptions have been added to its FOI Act and there have been several notable attempts to curtail the FOI Commission’s independence and funding.
Connecticut’s FOI Act turns 50 in 2025. The law was enacted in 1975 during the post-Watergate reform era. Over time, it too has been weakened. But remarkably, it has largely endured thanks to the extraordinary efforts of the commission and its staff, supporting nonprofit organizations, such as the Connecticut Foundation for Open Government and the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information, and, importantly, the many Connecticut citizens who rely on the commission to administer and enforce the FOI law.
That is why the commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of FOI in Connecticut is so significant: it has survived substantially intact for half a century where in many other places similar laws have not. The law still remains a vital – and sometimes the only – tool for citizens and the press to uncover government inefficiency, waste and corruption.
But laws and institutions that promote government transparency and accountability require constant vigilance. The Connecticut FOI experience over the past 50 years proves that such vigilance does indeed work.
We should be justifiably proud that Connecticut has for 50 years maintained an effective and credible FOI law that provides its citizens with meaningful government oversight and accountability. The fact that the law has survived to its golden anniversary is a tremendous achievement.
But we can only hope to move that record forward for another 50 years or more with continued vigilance. And by doing so, we can keep Connecticut as a beacon of open government for the entire world well into the future.
Pearlman was formerly the executive director of the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Foundation for Open Government and the Connecticut Council on Freedom of information.
