Sunshine Week

What the Candidates Are Saying About Open Government and Freedom of Information Issues

**Note: This posting was updated 03/16/08.

In October 2007, the then-16 major-party candidates were asked to complete a brief Sunshine Week survey on open government. Of the remaining three leading contenders, only Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has joined former candidates New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards in responding.

With the help of a team of researchers, we have collected articles, speech and debate transcripts and other records that give some insight into the presidential candidates' thoughts on access to government information. We have distilled them into brief overviews with links to the source material.

Read more on the Sunshine Week Web site ....

Sunshine Week Partners With Helium to Encourage Citizen Journalists to Write About Open Government and FOI Issues

Sunshine Week has joined forces with Helium, a leader in online citizen journalism, to generate discussion about issues that reflect open government and Freedom of Information. The innovative partnership provides Helium members with a platform to write about issues raised by Sunshine Week.

The partnership provides citizen journalists with the opportunity to write about Sunshine Week’s issues, as well as the Sunshine Campaign, which is seeking to get candidates at all levels of office to address open government issues. Today, writers are covering Sunshine Week topics at Helium that include "Has access to government information played a role in your life?" and "How important is government openness to American democracy?"

Sunshine Campaign Joins Project Vote Smart Bus Tour

Sunshine Week 2008: The Sunshine Campaign has joined Project Vote Smart's 20,000 mile Purple Bus Tour that is bringing the Voter's Self Defense System to people around the country.

Sixteen years in the making, the Voter's Self Defense System provides online access to information on more than 40,000 candidates at all levels of government. The nationwide tour brings a bus specially equipped with a movie theater and computer terminals with free Web access to demonstrate the system.

The Sunshine Campaign has produced informational brochures and promotional giveaways that will be distributed at each of the bus' stops. The brochures explain the Sunshine Campaign's goal of bringing the importance of open government forward as an issue that candidates from president to city council should address. Project Vote Smart also has worked with Sunshine Week to include questions about open government issues in its candidate surveys.

AP President and CEO Tom Curley to Speak on FOI During Sunshine Week Dinner at the National Press Club

Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley will address Freedom of Information and other open government issues during a Sunshine Week dinner event March 18 at The National Press Club. The dinner is being jointly presented by Sunshine Week and the Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library.

The speech will update Curley's 2004 Hays-Enterprise Lecture, which many view as a defining moment in moving forward the myriad efforts ongoing now to preserve and protect access to information. "The government is pushing hard for secrecy," he said in the Hays speech. "We must push back equally hard for openness." Curley's 2008 speech will look ahead to priorities in the new administration.

The National Press Club dinner will begin promptly at 6:30 p.m. Curley's remarks will start at 7:00 p.m. and be followed by a question-and-answer period. To make reservations, please call 202-662-7501, or e-mail pnelson@press.org. Cost of the dinner is $16 for National Press Club members, $28 for guests of members, $35 general admission.

Sunshine Campaign Brochure Now Available

A full-color tri-fold brochure about Sunshine Week 2008: The Sunshine Campaign can now be downloaded. The two sides should be printed back-to-back and then the page folded into thirds, with the campaign button ending up as the cover and the Sunshine Week and Sunshine Campaign pages facing each other.

Thousands of the brochures are being distributed along the 20,000-mile trek of the Project Vote Smart Purple Bus Tour, which is bringing live, interactive demonstrations of the online Voter's Self Defense System to communities across the nation. The Voter's Self Defense System provides online access to information on more than 40,000 candidates at all levels of government. Project Vote Smart also has worked with Sunshine Week to include questions about open government issues in its candidate surveys.

The brochures may be used by any participant in conjunction with Sunshine Week activities. They may not be altered or edited without express permission from Sunshine Week. Brochure artwork was created for Sunshine Week by EmacDesign.

Go to the Sunshine Campaign Resources page to find the download files.