The Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information weighed in Thursday on the plan by some in the state legislature to assume editorial control over the Connecticut public affairs channel known as CT-N.
In a strongly worded letter to the bi-partisan leadership of the legislature, obtained by The Laurel, the CCFOI says if the plan goes forward it “would turn the clock back nearly two decades” when it comes to public access to state government. CCFOI says an RFP issued last month laying out new rules for editorial decision making by the network “smacks of government censorship” and the council reminds legislative leaders that the original purpose of CT-N was to cover all three branches of government, not just the legislature.
CCFOI’s intervention on the issue creates just the kind of publicity politicians normally seek to avoid. Hearst Connecticut newspapers also published an editorial Thursday urging lawmakers to reverse course, calling the plan, “one of the worst ideas recently hatched under the gold dome.”
