Sunshine Week

Sunshine Week 2007 Roundup

Coming soon...the online gallery of great work from Sunshine Week 2007, including newspaper and broadcast packages, events, special reports, official proclamations and whatever else we can find and you send in.

The gallery will be updated regularly, so check back for the latest showcase.

For consideration, please send high-res electronic files in common formats such as PDF or JPG, or live Web links to dghernandez@asne.org. Brief write ups about the submissions are always welcome.

U.S. House Passes Four Open Government BillsDuring Sunshine Week 2007

The House of Representatives on March 14 passed four measures during Sunshine Week that promote and preserve open government, including a bill to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act. "Today, Congress took an important step towards restoring openness and transparency in government," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and a co-sponsor of the bills.

"Over the past six years, the Bush administration has done everything it can to operate in secret, to avoid public scrutiny, and to limit congressional oversight. I am pleased that Congress is reversing this course by passing four critically important good government bills with strong bipartisan support," he added.

The bills passed and the votes were: H.R. 1309 (308-117) to strengthen FOIA and improve public access to government information; H.R. 1255 (333-93) to nullify an executive order limiting access to presidential records; H.R. 985 (331-94) granting improved protection to federal whistleblowers; and H.R. 1254 (390-34) to require the release of presidential library donor information.

For more information, including links to the bills, visit the Committee's Web Site.

Sunshine Week and Facebook

Josh Franco of UC Merced has started a Sunshine Week group on Facebook.

Jump right to the page here and join the group.

Sens. Leahy, Cornyn Introduce OPEN Govt. Act 2007;Pen Column on FOIA Reform Bill for Sunshine Week

Photo courtesy of Sen. Leahy

Senators Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) have introduced the OPEN Government Act of 2007 (S. 849), which would provide significant reforms to the federal Freedom of Information Act. "As we celebrate Sunshine Week this week, there is urgent need to update and strengthen our FOIA law," Leahy said at a press conference introducing the bill.

The legislation, Cornyn added, "strengthens the view that the Freedom of Information Act establishes a presumption of openness, and that our government is based not on the need to know, but upon the fundamental right to know."

A hearing on the OPEN Government Act is scheduled for Wednesday, March 14, the same day the House of Representatives is slated to vote FOIA reform legislation from the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, one of five transparency bills scheduled for action during Sunshine Week.

Find Leahy and Cornyn's column online here.

Cartoons for the Classroom

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists' and NIEonline.com Cartoons for the Classroom project has created a special lesson page for Sunshine Week. Featuring cartoons from Etta Hulme and Tom Toles, the "Spotlighting government secrecy" lesson plans offers talking points about the Freedom of Information Act and the importance of open government, as well as links to additional resources.

Download the lesson sheet and more information about Cartoons for the Classroom from the AAEC Web site.

New Opinion Columns on Sunshine Week Web Site

Several opinion columns have recently joined those already posted in English and Spanish in the Sunshine Week Toolkit. They are:

"Lies Matter," By Benjamin C. Bradlee, Vice President at Large, The Washington Post: The most primitive of all forms of manipulation is lying. Nothing subtle, like TV spots suggesting that Barry Goldwater will nuke us all back to the Stone Age, or Mike Dukakis will flood the streets with convicted rapists, or John Kerry will leave America vulnerable to terrorist attacks. I'm not talking about exaggerating, misrepresenting, misspeaking, I'm talking about the real McCoy – lying. More

"Across the Pond: A Ray of Light May be Snuffed Out," By Heather Brooke, freelance journalist and author of "Your Right to Know – A Citizen’s Guide to the Freedom of Information Act": Freedom of Information in Britain is more like a candle flame than the sunshine laws familiar to Americans. Yet despite this country’s late arrival to open government legislation, the British Press are ditching their traditional skepticism and banding together to save our nascent FOI law from imminent destruction. Perhaps we might even start our own "Candle Week." More

"The Censorship of Science Undermines Democracy," By Francesca Grifo, Senior Scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists and Director of the UCS Scientific Integrity Program: Growing evidence shows that over the past several years, political interference in federal government science has become both widespread and pervasive. To ensure that science – one of the cornerstones of American democracy – continues to serve society, public officials must act to defend taxpayer-funded science from political interference. More

"A Complex Battle Over Openness," By Alasdair Roberts, author and professor,the Maxwell School of Syracuse University: These are strange times for people who advocate for open government. On one hand, technological changes appear to make information about government more easily available than ever before…. And yet we seem to be more concerned with government secrecy than ever before. Indeed, some people claim that secrecy today is the worst in decades. How can both of these stories be true? More

Nationwide Information Audit of Public Hazmat Documents Meets with Suspicion, Confusion And, Sometimes, Compliance

Report Released at the Start of Sunshine Week Includes Requestors' Experiences; Details National, Regional and State Responses

Download the complete report and charts here.

EPA photo

A nationwide information audit, conducted as a prelude to Sunshine Week, found slightly more than four in 10 of the official gatekeepers willing – if wary – to provide copies of emergency response plans, which federal law makes public. Other local officials, however, reacted to requests with confusion, outright denials and sometimes by calling police to check out the auditors. Many weren’t sure who had the authority to release the reports, or even where the documents were located.

More than a third of public officials audited refused to provide access to their local Comprehensive Emergency Response Plan – which is mandated by the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 as a public document. Another 20 percent provided only partial reports.

Those denials stood in stark contrast to the experience of other auditors, many of whom were offered copies of the report in either paper or disc form; 48, or 12 percent, of the 404 communities put the reports online.

Federal Government Seen As Increasingly Secretive;National Poll for Sunshine Week Finds Privacy Concerns

Americans increasingly suspect the federal government has become cloaked in secrecy, a concern they don't have with their local and state governments.

People also overwhelmingly believe that their federal leaders have become sneaky, listening to telephone conversations or opening private mail without getting court permission, according to a survey of 1,008 adults commissioned by the American Society of Newspaper Editors for Sunshine Week.

The poll, conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University, found that concerns about federal secrecy are rising.

Twenty-five percent believe the federal government is either "very open" or "somewhat open," while 69 percent said it's either "somewhat secretive" or "very secretive."

That's a shift from   a similar poll last year, when 33 percent thought the federal government was open and 62 percent thought it was secretive. About 6 percent and 5 percent were undecided in the 2007 and 2006 polls.

Read the full report on the Sunshine Week Web site

Editorial Cartoonists Focus on Sunshine Week

Dozens of editorial cartoons for Sunshine Week 2007 have been sent in by members of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The cartoonists have donated their work for use by any participant in any medium for coverage and events pertaining to Sunshine Week 2007. After March 17, they may be used only with permission of the artist.

Click here to see a gallery of cartoons from members of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists

Click here to see a collection of cartoons provided by the Union of Concerned Scientists