The awards recognize Bay Area individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to the advancement of freedom of expression in the spirit of James Madison, the creative force behind the First Amendment.

Nominees included citizens, journalists, media organizations and community groups from the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area who have during the past year defended public access to government meetings, public records, and court proceedings, or otherwise promoted the public's right to know, and publish, broadcast, and speak freely about issues of public concern.

A former congressional representative and current San Francisco resident, Moss is one of the country's true pioneers in the fight for freedom-of-information rights. Now 82 years old, Moss took courageous moral and ethical stands during some of the country's most turbulent times, from the early Cold War years through the debacle in Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. Those were decades when questioning government in any way was often considered tantamount to treason -- and years when his crusade to force sunshine on the secret cabals that run Washington was of utmost importance.

"During all those years when the national-security mania was so high, just about everygovernment agency would use 'national security' as a blanket excuse to evade providing information," Ben Bagdikian told the Bay Guardian. "But I'd go to John Moss' office and say, 'For god sakes, I need this info,' and John would write a letter and -- most important -- get a response.

"More reporters began seeking his help, and John Moss and his team became a conduit for this vast wealth of information that should have legitimately been public from the start but would have been kept secret had it not been for him. John Moss has done more than anyone in this century to make this government an open government."

"From a 1990s perspective, John Moss' achievements are all the more remarkable because, at the very height of the Cold War, he and his colleagues were able to persuade Congress to give the American people enforceable access to a truly substantial amount of unprecedented information about their government," Terry Francke said. "Many people are frustrated by the way the government can still avoid full disclosure. But the more we learn about the government's obsession with secrecy over the past few decades makes it that much greater an achievement for Moss to have broken so much FOI ground."