A community can only be strong when it knows what its government is doing and why.
That’s what’s behind a national initiative known as Sunshine Week, intended to launch a discussion about the importance of open government and freedom of information.
The term Sunshine Week, refers to the idea of shining a light on government actions or bringing government actions into the sunshine of day. Several Associated Press stories to be featured this week explore the role of open government in our nation as well as the threats to the notion of freedom of information.
The week is really about the public’s right to know about its government. Our government was created based on an understanding of the importance of open government and freedom of information.
Sunshine Week grew from Sunshine Sundays, launched by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors in 2002 in response to efforts by some Florida lawmakers to pass more than 300 new exemptions to the state’s public records law. The actions would have cut off the people’s right to know. The increased public awareness of the effort made with the Sunshine Sundays campaign helped to defeat those proposals.
Though spearheaded by journalists, Sunshine Week also serves to encourage people to play an active role in their government and to give them access to information that improves their lives and strengthens their communities, according to the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
But the job of ensuring access to information about government has become more challenging in recent years. For example, more than 20 million decisions were made in 2006 by the federal government to “classify” a unit of government information as off limits to the public. That number is up from 8 million in 2001, according to the Information Security Oversight Office at the National Archives.
Sunshine Week is helping to educate people about what they a have a right to know about, how to get that information, and the importance of playing a role in government.