The Road to FOIA Begins – Rep. John Moss Opens Hearings on Government Secrecy
Rep. John E. Moss (D–California) began pioneering hearings on government secrecy on this day.
Over the next 11 years, he exposed outrageous secrecy policies among many federal agencies, and badgered several presidents on the issue of secrecy in their administrations. His campaign for openness in government eventually led to passage of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on July 4, 1966.
Moss is properly regarded as the father of freedom of information in America.
Every state, meanwhile, has enacted a freedom of information or public records law modeled after the federal FOIA, although generally with some variations that make them either stronger or weaker than the federal law. Check out Sunshine Week, which annually celebrates the principle of open records laws, on March 16, 2005.
The Freedom of Information Act, which allows ordinary citizens, journalists and historians to obtain (often secret) information about activities of the federal government, is widely regarded as one of the greatest contributions of American democracy in recent decades.
See also September 28, 2003 for International Right to Know Day.
Read the outstanding new book: Michael Schudson, The Rise of the Right to Know: Politics and the Culture of Transparency, 1945-1975 (2015)
Learn more at the John E. Moss Foundation web site: http://www.johnemossfoundation.org/
Read: Herbert Foerstel, Freedom of Information and the Right to Know: The Origins and Applications of the Freedom of Information Act (1999)
Learn more about FOIA: http://www.foia.gov/
Check out FBI documents released under FOIA: http://vault.fbi.gov/reading-room-index
Learn more about Sunshine Week: http://www.nfoic.org/sunshine-week-2013