Announcing the CT Journalism and Open Government Awards

Two of the state’s preeminent journalism organizations, the CT chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (CT SPJ) and the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information (CCFOI), will host a joint awards dinner honoring journalists, media advocates and public officials.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10

Farmington Gardens

999 Farmington Ave., Farmington CT

The dinner will begin at 6 p.m. with a happy hour followed by a buffet dinner, presentation of awards and the CT Journalism Hall of Fame ceremony. 

Tickets cost $45.

Tickets will only be sold in advance via this link, no tickets will be available at the door. If you have any questions about tickets or the event please email spjconnecticut@gmail.com.

Among the award winners are journalists from news organizations of all sizes around the state, as well as public officials who have been strong advocates of government transparency and the public’s right to know.

CT SPJ will also induct Norma Rodriguez-Reyes into the Connecticut Journalism Hall of Fame. Rodriguez-Reyes is the owner and publisher of La Voz Hispana of CT, Connecticut’s largest Spanish-language newspaper. La Voz Hispana, which Abelardo King founded in 1993, reaches a print circulation of about 30,000 readers in Connecticut and Massachusetts. 

Rodriguez-Reyes is also the chair of the Board of Directors of the Online Journalism Project, the not-for-profit organization that publishes the New Haven Independent, the Valley Independent Sentinel and WNHH community radio. She has been on the board since OJP’s founding in 2005.

The CCFOI annual awards are:

• The Stephen A. Collins Award, which recognizes outstanding work by a journalist, will go to Katherine Revello, a reporter for Inside Investigator. She has produced dozens of stories about the use and misuse of the Freedom of Information Act by state and local government entities.

• The Bice Clemow Award, which is given to a non-journalist who has shown leadership in supporting government openness, will be given to state Comptroller Sean Scanlon, who has particularly called out the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system for its refusal to release information regarding misconduct by college officials.

• The Champion of Open Government Awards, which are given to officials who advocate for the public’s right to know, will go to two lawmakers who have been staunch supporters of the FOI Act: state Sen. Heather Somers and state Rep. Roland Lemar. A senior deputy Republican leader, Somers represents eight southeastern Connecticut towns. Roland Lemar, a Democrat who chairs the General Law Committee, is from New Haven. 

• The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an individual who has devoted his or her career to government transparency. The award will be presented to Colleen Murphy, who retired recently as executive director and general counsel of the Freedom of Information Commission, where she worked for 35 years.

CT SPJ will honor the hundreds of winners of the 2025 Excellence in Journalism professional and student contest, the recipients of the Bob Eddy Scholarship and the winners of the the following three awards:

• The First Amendment Award honors reporting that increases the public understanding of the role of the press in a free society. Ginny Monk and Dave Altimari of the CT Mirror won for “On the Hook,” an exposé of the lax standards and predatory practices that allowed the towing industry to victimize people who live paycheck to paycheck. The investigation, produced in collaboration with ProPublica, was recently honored with the Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting and named a finalist for the FOI award from the Investigative Reporters & Editors organization. 

• A group of reporters and editors at Hearst Connecticut Media Group won the contest’s other two major awards — the Stephen A. Collins Public Service Award and Theodore Driscoll Award for Investigative Reporting — for “No Place to Sleep,” a project in which a group of journalists and photographers covered 48 hours of homelessness across the state.

Please email spjconnecticut@gmail.com with any questions about the event.