Sunshine Week

Royal Gazette Feels Burned After Push for Sunshine Law in Bermuda

The Royal Gazette in Hamilton, Bermuda, celebrated its first Sunshine Week in 2008. Then the government pulled its advertising.

While government officials maintain the move was part of an overall cost-cutting initiative, Royal Gazette Editor Bill Zuill, sees it differently.

"In the end, it would appear that Sunshine Week, and this newspaper's advocacy of a Freedom of Information law, was the straw that broke the camel’s back," he wrote in a special editorial for Sunshine Week.

"The government’s confused message on the legislation along with its vigorous efforts to discredit the campaign and The Royal Gazette suggest that the ban had been in the works for some time, but our attempts to shine a little light on the inner workings of government proved to be more than it could take," Zuill added.

Zuill's opinion column may be republished by newspapers, Web sites, bloggers and others. Because of the difficulty in tracking such use, please let us know if you've used it.

Click here for Zuill's column and links to PDFs of The Royal Gazette's Sunshine Week coverage.

Sunshine Week Partners With Helium for Citizen Journalism Awards

Sunshine Week and Helium have expanded their partnership on the online citizen journalism site with the new Sunshine Week Citizen Journalism Award.

Each month, the award will recognize the Helium writer who has posted the most compelling article about a specific open government issue. Noting that nearly 9 in 10 people say they want to know where candidates stand on access issues, the first competition asks writers to address the question: Are candidates missing an opportunity to connect with voters on open government issues?

At the end of the month, a winner will be selected from among the top ranked work, as rated by fellow Helium writers. Monthly winners will receive an award certificate and automatically become eligible for a grand prize, which will be presented in conjunction with Sunshine Week 2009, March 15-21.

To learn more about the competition and to write to Sunshine Week’s current contest title, visit www.helium.com/journalism-awards/sunshine-week.

Professional and amateur writers alike can sign up for free as Helium contributors and take part in the competition. There also are opportunities to write about non-competition titles on Helium's Sunshine Week partner page, www.helium.com/partners/sunshineweek.

Visit the Web for more information about Sunshine Week, www.sunshineweek.org, and Helium, www.helium.com.

Bright Ideas 2008

From tropical islands to snowy peaks, Sunshine spread across land March 16-22 as newspapers, broadcasters, online media, schools, libraries, public officials, civic groups and individuals celebrated open government with Sunshine Week 2008.

The theme of this year's initiative, The Sunshine Campaign, was picked up by public officials and citizens alike, who used the occasion to talk about preserving and protecting access to government information and meetings. Others focused on special projects such as information audits or general education about how to get and use the records that rightfully belong to the people.

This is only the beginning of what we've seen; more will be posted regularly, so be sure to keep checking back, and let us know if we've missed anything.

View the gallery here.

Sen. Landrieu Speaks Out Against FEMA Information Delays

Senator Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) used the occasion of Sunshine Week to speak out against excessive delays by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in releasing information to the news media and public about disasters and their aftermath — particularly regarding Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"Open government is a tenet of our democracy, and accountability is never more important than in times of crisis. Only by shining the light on public scrutiny of the government's mistakes can we take steps to prevent them from repeating," Landrieu wrote in an opinion column first published by PoynterOnline and now available for Sunshine Week participants via the Sunshine Week Toolkit.

Landrieu took particular exception to FEMA delays and six-figure fees for releasing information to New Orleans and Baton Rouge newspapers.

"The catastrophic hurricanes and levee failures of 2005 left a lot of unanswered questions and lessons yet to be learned as we prepare for future disasters," she wrote. "These lessons are far too important to leave in the shadows."

More….

AP President and CEO Tom Curley Calls on News Media to Step Up and Fight for Openness in Government

Citing "some good days recently" for the Sunshine community, Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley said, "After years of playing mostly defense, and mostly getting beat, we've finally been able to get back on offense and score a few points."

Speaking to a Sunshine Week dinner crowd at the National Press Club in Washington, Curley pointed to legislative gains in Freedom of Information Act reform and toward a reporters' shield law as particular bright spots. "Accomplishments," he said, "that not long ago seemed unattainable."

"Some in the news business think it compromises our objectivity as journalists to set ourselves up as players on matters of public policy even in a cause as just and as close to our hearts as open government," he added. "I respect the high-minded intentions behind this view, but I strongly disagree.

"When a matter of public policy poses a straight-up choice between the public’s rights of access to its government and a government effort to infringe or even narrow those rights, journalists cannot pretend to be disinterested observers."

Read the speech here….

Executive Order on FOIA Has Little Impact on Compliance

National Security Archive Sunshine Week Audit Finds Agency Goals Not Met

Source: National Security Archive

President Bush’s executive order for a “citizen-centered” and “results-oriented” Freedom of Information system did improve customer service at federal agencies, but has failed to make consistent progress on backlogs and has not significantly improved compliance with electronic FOIA requirements, according to the Knight Open Government Survey released March 16 by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

“Many of the same old scofflaw agencies are still shirking their responsibilities to the public,” said Tom Blanton, director of the Archive. “I’m reminded of how many psychiatrists it takes to change a light bulb — only one, but the light bulb has to really want to change.”

The order set up Chief FOIA Officers at each of 90 federal agencies and asked for FOIA improvement plans from each agency. The Archive’s Survey, the seventh in a series of unprecedented government-wide audits of FOIA performance, analyzed all the agency improvement plans, sent FOIA requests to all 90 agencies (plus 18 major agency components), and queried agency FOIA Service Centers and public liaison offices to test responsiveness.

Read more ....

Clinton Tells Sunshine Week She's "Committed to Restoring Open Government"

Says Her Attorney General Must Have "Proven Commitment" to Openness

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) says she is "committed to restoring open government" by not only mandating more open meetings and release of public documents, but also by nominating "an attorney general who has a proven commitment to open government," according to her response to the Sunshine Week 2008: Sunshine Campaign survey of presidential candidates.

Sunshine Week surveyed the presidential candidates on a variety of open government issues, including access to information, Freedom of Information Act reform, secrecy and classification.

To date, Clinton is the only remaining major candidate to respond. Former democratic contenders Gov. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.) replied in full and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) responded in part.

"I believe in an open, transparent government that is accountable to the people," Clinton wrote. "Excessive government secrecy harms democratic governance and can weaken our system of checks and balances by shielding officials from oversight and inviting misconduct or error.

"To me, openness and accountability are not platitudes — they are essential elements of our democracy," she added.

Clinton's response comes on the heels of a Sunshine Week public opinion survey by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University that found three-quarters of Americans think the federal government is secretive, and almost nine in 10 say where a presidential candidate stands on openness is something they consider when deciding who will get their vote.

Read more ....

More People See Federal Government as Secretive; Nearly All Want to Know Where Candidates Stand on Transparency

Three-quarters of American adults view the federal government as secretive, and nearly nine in 10 say it's important to know presidential and congressional candidates' positions on open government when deciding who to vote for, according to a Sunshine Week survey by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University.

The survey shows a significant increase over the past three years in the percentage of Americans who believe the federal government is very or somewhat secretive, from 62 percent of those surveyed in 2006 to 74 percent in 2008.

The survey of 1,012 adults was commissioned by ASNE for Sunshine Week, a national initiative that encourages discussions about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Sunshine Week's 2008 Sunshine Campaign is a yearlong effort to have candidates for all level of office — from president to city council — discuss their positions on government access issues.

Half of respondents said government at the state level is secretive, while 44 percent viewed it as open. Nearly all interviewed, 92 percent, said open government is important to them in assessing candidates for state offices such as governor or attorney general. Those who see local government as secretive increased from 34 percent in 2007 to 40 percent in the 2008 survey. And 91 percent said the local candidate's position and record on open government are important to them in making a voting decision.

Read more on the Sunshine Week site.

Sens. Leahy, Cornyn Mark Sunshine Week With New FOIA Bill to Expose Exemptions

Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), co-sponsors of the OPEN Government Act of 2007, on the cusp of Sunshine Week, introduced another bill to strengthen open government. The OPEN FOIA Act calls for Congress to "explicitly and clearly" state its intentions to create any new exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act, typically known as "(b)(3)" exemptions that are often buried in complex legislation.

"Senator Cornyn and I have worked together for years to restore openness and transparency to a government that has become increasingly secretive," Leahy said. "While some government information needs to be kept secret, we cannot allow the government to hide behind the veil of secrecy and curb the public's right to know, just to avoid accountability. Our new legislation will take steps to make clear those exemptions to FOIA, and this is a fitting start to Sunshine Week."

Cornyn remarked, "It was encouraging to see Congress take major steps recently to expand the American people's right to government information. This latest bill is an effort to further enhance government transparency and accountability. Sunshine Week is an opportunity to highlight these important principles of our Founding Fathers — a truly self-governing society depends on an informed citizenry."

Sunshine Week Hosts Open Government Discussion After L.A. Theatre Works' "Top Secret" Production

Sunshine Week will host a discussion on open government and secrecy issues following a Thursday, March 13, L.A. Theatre Works production of "Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers" in Los Angeles. The dialogue will be led by Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition. Read more online here....