Sunshine Week

A Big Week for Freedom

Around the world, people who believe in free press, free speech and the freedom to know what their governments are doing, are celebrating these rights from Sept. 28-Oct. 4, 2008.

In Mexico, the second annual México Abierto is being celebrated from Sept. 28-Oct. 4.

Based on the U.S. Sunshine Week model, México Abierto brings together journalists, students, academics, public service officials and non-government organizations.

Activities include publishing editorials and investigative articles, holding conferences and discussions with professionals and concerned citizens focusing on open government, and participating in forums on the use of Mexico's local and federal access to information laws.

For more information, visit the México Abierto Web site.

Also tied to International Right to Know Day, Sept. 28, FreedomInfo.org reports that more than 80 countries now have Freedom of Information laws ensuring their people have access to government-held information.

"Latin American countries in particular are witnessing new energy and milestones in expanding the right to know, in large part as a result of the landmark decision by the InterAmerican Human Rights Court in the case of Reyes v. Chile (2006) that access to government information is a fundamental human right," FreedomInfo.org reported.

Sept. 29 also marks the start of Banned Books Week, an annual event hosted by the American Library Association to remind people "not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted."

Banned Books Week "celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one's opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular," ALA explained, adding it also "stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met."

For more information, about Banned Books Week, and resources to celebrate it, visit the ALA Web site.

New England First Amendment Center Launched

The New England First Amendment Center has been launched by Northeastern University's School of Journalism and the New England First Amendment Coalition to focus attention on government access issues.

Among its activities, the Center will call attention to efforts to restrict access to public records and meetings, and it will maintain a Web site and hotline providing information and assistance to journalists and others. It also intends to engage in original research and host seminars on public records and open meetings laws.

"There is a need for greater awareness of the importance of freedom of information in a free society," said NEFAC President Tom Heslin, interim executive editor of the Providence (R.I.) Journal. "The right to know is as essential to a functioning democracy as the right to vote."

Read more ….

State of the First Amendment 2008

The State of the First Amendment 2008 report from the First Amendment Center finds, "Americans traditionally support the general concepts of free expression and religious liberty, but when asked about specific situations, many appear willing to accept a measure of government involvement or even control," according to First Amendment Center Vice President and Executive Director Gene Policinski.

"The nation's Founders, however, saw the First Amendment and the rest of the Bill of Rights as guarantees against a power central government created by the Constitution," he added.

Among the findings, 20 percent of Americans say the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees, down from 28 who responded similarly in the 1999 survey.

More than three-quarters of respondents agree that it's important for democracy for the news media to act as a watchdog over government, and two-thirds agree (64 percent) that bloggers should have the same First Amendment protections as professional journalists.

Read more from the report and Policinski's analysis here.

Constitution Day 2008

Though it's efficacy (the day, not the document) has received mixed reviews, Sept. 17 is Constitution Day, so named to mark the 1787 signing of the document that outlined our system of government.

All schools that receive federal funding are required to teach a lesson about the Constitution around this anniversary, and several organizations provide tools that focus on the importance of the First Amendment in particular. They include ASNE's hsj.org which focuses on lesson plans and other materials for high school journalists; TeachFirstAmendment.org, provided by J-IDEAS, which among its offerings includes a First Amendment quiz; Voices for the First, a project of the Illinois First Amendment Center; and The Constitution Center, with links to myriad resources online.

Also marking Constitution Day is the World Resources Institute, which was joined by 35 organizations in calling for the presidential candidates to hold a dialogue on the Constitution, reaffirming their commitment to protecting scientific integrity and openness.

"We want all campaigns to let the American people know where they stand on such core principles as checks and balances in government, government oversight by Congress, and transparency of information," the statement noted. The complete statement and list of organizations joining WRI, is on the WRI Web site.

Put Your Money Where Your Freedom Is

As news media grow reluctant to spend increasingly limited resources on fighting for information, government officials are, in turn, denying more requests, confident that they're unlikely to be challenged.

That's the word from journalists in Colorado participating in a National Press Club Centennial Forum on the First Amendment, Freedom of the Press and the Future of Journalism at the Denver Press Club.

Mark Cardwell, managing editor/digital editor of the Denver Post, remarked that at the federal level particularly, government is withholding more information because officials "know it’s expensive to sue, and the news media don’t have a lot of money," according to a report on the event posted on the NPC blog.

Read the entire post here.

Making the case for open government — which, sadly, is becoming increasingly necessary — The Republican of Springfield, Mass., editorialized: "One of the true beauties of the American system, established so that power flows from the people to their governors, is the expectation that the citizenry be well informed."

Pointing to the ever-increasing amount of secrecy, as detailed in the 2008 Secrecy Report Card (see below), The Republican noted, "We are moving dramatically in the wrong direction. How can a government of the people function when the people have no way of knowing what is going on inside the government? A farce, indeed. And a tragedy.

"The next president, no matter who is elected in 55 days, must set to work to improve this. Quickly and decisively.

"A United States without an open government is the United States in name alone. That must not be allowed to come to pass," The Republican concluded.

Read the editorial here.

'Report Card' Shows Mixed Grades on Secrecy

The 2008 Secrecy Report Card from OpenTheGovernment.org found "both a continued expansion of government secrecy…and some movement toward more openness and accountability, particularly in the Congress."

Some of the secrecy trends highlighted in the report include: 5 percent growth in spending on maintaining classification versus declassification ($195 per $1, respectively); an increase in the number of new patents kept confidential under "secrecy orders"; greater backlogs in processing Freedom of Information Act requests; and the ninth consecutive year of growth in secret orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

On the openness front, the Secrecy Report Card noted that Congress has moved against unwarranted and excess secrecy with legislation such as the OPEN Government Act, which became law at the end of 2007 — though not without the administration's attempt to eliminate the office of FOIA ombudsman.

The 2008 Secrecy Report Card and press release can be found online at OpenTheGovernment.org.

Scientific Integrity, Human Rights Are Topics For Sunshine Week's Monthly Essay Awards

Retired architect John McDevitt is the winner of the Sunshine Week Citizen Journalism Award for July-August for his essay on the Helium.com Web site exploring whether it's appropriate for government to interfere in the release of federally funded scientific data.

"Unfiltered public access to taxpayer funded science is vital because it creates the climate for a credible vigorous science with the checks and balances essential to the health of an open, democratic society," McDevitt wrote.

"A savvy presidential candidate could bring the debate out into the open, give real meaning to their commitment to an open society and transparency in government and help restore the checks and balances so desperately needed to bring common sense and scientific scrutiny into the regulatory process," he added. Read the winning essay online.

To mark International Right to Know Day on Sept. 28, the Sunshine Week Citizen Journalism Award for September will ask essayists to discuss access to information as a basic human right, an ideal put forward in the Atlanta Declaration, developed during The Carter Center International Conference on Access to Public Information.

The essay competition is open to professional and amateur writers. Details are on the Helium Web site.