Sunshine Week

Honorary Chairs Star in Sunshine WeekPrint, Radio and Television Ads

Sunshine Week Honorary Chairs Ben Bradlee of The Washington Post, Tom Brokaw of NBC News and Judy Woodruff of PBS NewsHour are featured in a series of print and broadcast ads for use by Sunshine Week participants.

The print ads, developed by Sunshine Week, feature each of the chairs' comments on the importance of information to the public under the similar headline series "Information is…."

Information is Essential, Bradlee states. "Open government laws are absolutely essential to getting the information officials might prefer to see locked away." Click here for the ad.

Information is Freedom, Brokaw says. "If we present ourselves to the world as patrons of democracy, then we must be vigilant stewards at home of the oxygen that it requires – access to what our government is doing and the right to speak freely about it." Click here for the ad.

Information is Strength, Woodruff asserts. "We're a stronger society because information – good and bad – flows freely." Click here for the ad.

J-Ideas: "Sunshine Week ImportantFor Student Journalists, Too"

J-Ideas, an initiative housed at Ball State University and designed to promote and encourage high school journalists, has posted an article reminding student media that Sunshine Week and openness aren't just for professional journalists.

"We are teaching our student journalists to be real journalists and in order to be real, you have to get the facts," the article quotes Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Journalism Teacher of the Year Terry Nelson, who noted that FOI issues facing students are the same as those for professionals.

The article, by J-Ideas graduate assistant Josie Bode, can be read on the J-Ideas Web site.

$2,000 Congressional Mashup Contest

The Sunlight Foundation is celebrating Sunshine Week with a $2,000 prize for the best "Web 2.0 Mashup" about Congress. The contest deadline is March 17.

Contest judges are digital technology pioneer Esther Dyson, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, and Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales.

Entries will be judged on both creativity and how well they share information about Congress. New productions are encouraged, but any mashup created in the past six months is eligible.

For more information and links to some reference sites, go to the Sunlight Foundation Web site.

Sunshine Week Broadcast PSAs

Sunshine Week 2007 Honorary Chairs Ben Bradlee, Tom Brokaw and Judy Woodruff have been tapped by the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation to appear in a series of public service ads for Sunshine Week, March 11-17.

RTNDF also has prepared 30-second public service announcements in English and Spanish featuring citizens, who speak about the importance of open government, with time for a local anchor to open and close the announcement.

Information on dubs of the television ads and downloadable radio ads are on the RTNDF Web site. The ads also are available via the Sunshine Week site for posting by any participant.

New Posts to the Sunshine Week Reading Room

 The Waiting Game: FOIA Performance Hits New Lows. New research by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government shows that the government’s overall FOIA performance remains at the lowest point since agency reporting began in 1998.

 

Clark Hoyt of McClatchy Newspapers, testifying on behalf of the Sunshine in Government Initiative, told the House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives that "Regardless of party of political philosophy, I believe everyone can agree that the government's information is the people's information and that – with certain exceptions for national security or privacy reasons – it should be available to the people." Hoyt gave several examples of how FOIA helped uncover important news, including a series on how the Veterans Affairs Department is  ill-equipped to help Iraqi war veterans, and stressed the need for FOIA reform. Read Hoyt's testimony here.