Sunshine Week

Sunshine Campaign Asks the Open Govt. Questions

From David Westphal, and Pat Yack, co-chairs of ASNE's Freedom of Information Committee:

Sunshine Week has begun compiling an unprecedented Web database that will chronicle the positions of candidates running for president and Congress on issues of government openness, access and secrecy. We're calling this the Sunshine Campaign.

Our aim is a one-of-a-kind repository that will inform voters on where candidates stand, and will serve as a touchstone for measuring the winning candidates' performance in office.

We need your help in asking candidates their views on Freedom of Information issues. Many of you will have the chance, over the next 14 months, to grill candidates in editorial board meetings, debates, town-hall meetings and on-the-road reporting. We'd like to suggest that these are golden opportunities to ask what we think are among the most important questions of the campaign.

We've put together a list of questions we hope will get to as many candidates as possible, but we encourage you to formulate your own as well. We also hope you'll take this model and apply it to candidates at the state and local level.

We know there's never enough time to ask all the questions that need to be asked, but access to government information lies at the heart of our democracy. At a time when world events have prompted strong pleas from some to expand secrecy in government, it is fundamental to the public interest to know where the candidates stand — just as we need to know their views on war and peace, jobs and the economy.

Find more, including the Sunshine Campaign's suggested questions, here.

Peru, Nigeria Look for Sunshine on International Right to Know Day, Sept. 28

El Consejo de la Prensa Peruana has produced a poster commemorating International Right to Know Day on Sept. 28.

The poster will also be used in newspapers and magazines across Peru on Thursday and Friday, Sept. 27-28, and radio ads will be broadcast on Friday.

In Nigeria, The Freedom of Information Coalition led by Media Rights Agenda, is hoping to collect one million signatures from Nigerians around the world on a petition it will present to the National Assembly on Sept. 28, International Right to Know Day.

According to the Media Rights Agenda Web site, "Barely 24 hours after the campaign was launched, several hundreds of Nigerians scattered across the globe have enthusiastically signed up for the petition and the number of signatories have continue to grow by the minute."

The petition, which is available online, urges the National Assembly to act promptly to pass the Freedom of Information Bill before the end of the year. The bill has been pending since 1999.

"We are concerned that the inordinate delay in passing this Bill into law undermines democratic and accountable governance by denying us our fundamental right to know and participate fully in the government of our country," the petition states. "The right of citizens to access public information underpins a democratic system of government and is a core requirement for good governance.  Indeed, it is a human right."

International Right to Know Day is Sept. 28

The Cayman Islands' Freedom of Information Unit is marking International Right to Know Day on Sept. 28 by launching a Sunshine Week celebration of open government that is based on the U.S. model.

FOI Coordinator Carole Excell told the Cayman Net News, "We will start small this year — with engaging some key groups in learning about the new [Freedom of Information] law and in our plans for implementation which we hope will be expanded each year to include more and more people." Learn more on the Cayman Islands' FOI Web site.

Another week of Sunshine is forecast for Canada, where the Canadian Newspaper Association has just released its third annual National FOI Audit.

To conduct the audit, reporters from 30 newspapers in nine of 10 provinces and The Canadian Press asked first in-person and then through formal, written requests for several different documents. What they found was that, "access to some of the most basic information continues to be unnecessarily difficult in many jurisdictions in Canada."

Around the world, news and access organizations are marking International Right to Know Day on Sept. 28 with reports, seminars and events, and awards lauding openness and condemning unnecessary secrecy.

International Right to Know Day was launched in 2002 at the founding of the Freedom of Information Advocates Network, a worldwide coalition dedicated to facilitating adoption and implementation of FOI laws. More information can be found on the FOIA Net Web site.

Sunshine Campaign Coordinators Start Recruiting

The first of the Sunshine Week 2008 coordinators are starting their work, recruiting their colleagues and getting the Sunshine Campaign off to a great start.

The Sunshine Campaign is the main project of Sunshine Week 2008. While the campaign will run through the 2008 elections, Sunshine Week 2008 will be observed March 16-22.

The goal of the Sunshine Campaign is to make open government a must-address campaign issue for candidates running for president to local city council. We are encouraging journalists and citizens to ask every candidate for public office to articulate his or her positions on open government and Freedom of Information.

As we collect this information from our research and from what participants send us, it will go into an online database of statements, positions, votes and views across a variety of issues that we expect to launch later this fall.

In conjunction with that, the Sunshine Week Web site — itself to soon sport a new look — will offer suggested questions for candidates, information about the issues, Web ads featuring our "spokesmammals," and other resources that can be used by anyone who wants to participate.

More about the project will be announced soon, but meanwhile, if you'd like to get involved, please contact one of the regional, state or specialty coordinators listed here.

NFOIC Report Examines How States Resolve Access Issues

The National Freedom of Information Coalition has released a study of the various ways states resolve access to information disputes without litigation. The report,"Mediation Without Litigation," reviews state models such as formal and informal resolutions, and mediation by attorneys general or government-sponsored entities.

"In the end, the effectiveness of any given system depends largely on the political support provided by government as well as state access advocates," Hammitt writes. "Beyond political support, however, these offices are most effective when their employees believe deeply in the right to access."

The complete report, written by Access Reports Editor and Publisher Harry Hammitt, a board member of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, is available on the NFOIC Web site.

Help Ensure Access to Official Info in Europe

Access Info, a Spain-based organization dedicated to promoting and protecting access to information worldwide, is asking groups and individuals to sign on to a letter urging European officials to ensure official records remain open.

The letter to the Council of Europe focuses on gaps in what Access Info describes as "the world's first treaty to guarantee the right of access to information," the European Convention on Access to Official Documents.

The drafting committee, comprised of specialists from 15 of the 47 government members of the Council of Europe, meets for the final time Oct. 9-12 in Strasbourg. The treaty they are drafting "establishes a right to request 'official documents', which are broadly defined as all information held by public authorities, in any form," Access Info explains on its Web site.

"On the positive side, the future Convention will establish that the right to “official documents” can be exercised by all persons with no need to demonstrate a particular interest in the information requested, and at no charge for filing requests and viewing documents," the explanation continues, adding, however, there are "three major flaws" in the current draft.

The letter urges the committee to reconsider the treaty's omission of official documents held by legislative and judicial authorities; the lack of inclusion of documents "held by natural and legal persons insofar as they perform public functions"; and the need to include additional categories of information including finances and procurement "that must be published proactively."

For more information about the treaty and to sign on to the letter, visit the Access Info Web site.

Secrecy Report Card Gives Poor Grades for Openness

As children across America head back to school for the fall, one report card already has been issued, and the performance it evaluates may warrant some remedial attention. (Say, maybe a week in March to reinforce the lessons?)

The latest Secrecy Report Card" from OpenTheGovernment.org "shows both a continued expansion of government secrecy across a broad array of agencies and actions and some, limited, movement toward more openness and accountability," according to the executive summary.

The Secrecy Report Card looks at trends in classification (down slightly, but still higher than 2000, and costing more measured against declassification); the rise in no-bid contracts (way up); use of "state secrets" label to withhold information (more frequent than during the Cold War); FOIA backlogs and costs (up); and other secrecy indicators.

The Secrecy Report Card also tracks secrecy-related legislation in the nation's statehouses.

Download the Secrecy Report Card here.