Sunshine Week

12 Countries Sign European Access to Info Treaty

2009-06-18T14:24:02-04:00

Access Info Europe reports that 12 nations have signed the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents, the world's first treaty on access to information.

Signers are: Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Slovenia, and Sweden. Next step is ratification.

The Convention, among other things, sets minimum standards on access rights, and guarantees the right to request official documents.

More details at Access Info Europe.

Action Plan for Info Access in the Americas Released

2009-05-21T17:05:42-04:00

From the Carter Center:

Atlanta . . . Participants in a conference on the right of access to information released today their findings and plan of action to advance the right in the Americas.

The Americas Regional Plan of Action provides a blueprint for the regional and international community, states, and non-state actors to establish, develop, and nurture the right of access to information in the Americas and calls on them to commit to the plan in furtherance of our common objective. The regional document serves as an annex to last year's global Atlanta Declaration and Plan of Action.

The conference was held April 28-30, 2009, in Lima, Peru, and was organized by The Carter Center in collaboration with the Organization of American States, the Andean Jurists Commission, and the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. More than 115 representatives from government, civil society, media, private sector, regional intergovernmental organizations, international and regional financial institutions, and donors from 18 countries in the region came together to consider the main obstacles and potential solutions to advance the right of access to information in the Americas.

Participants found that the greatest challenges to the right of access to information in the Americas are a lack of implementation and enforcement of legislation, backsliding in the more developed systems, and an absence of widespread use of the existing legislation and mechanisms, and that the diversity of the region necessitates diversity in responses.

Read more on the Carter Center Web site.

For A Limited Time: Your Donation Brings More

2009-05-14T15:13:51-04:00

As some of you may have read, the ASNE Foundation — under which Sunshine Week operates — is ending its endowment campaign at the end of 2009. The nationwide recession and other economies specific to the newspaper industry worked against our best efforts to make the campaign successful.

However, through the end of the year, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which kicked off the endowment campaign with a $2.5 million matching challenge grant, will continue to match up to $1.125 million in campaign donations at a 2:3 ratio. So a gift of $100 becomes $166, $150 means $250, $500 translates into $833, and so on. Overall, there's the potential for $1.875 million to be added to the endowment.

Your help in any amount is desperately needed. While the American Society of News Editors will continue its support for the Sunshine Week project and other First Amendment and free press issues, without a significant infusion of funding it will have to do so at compacted levels. For Sunshine Week specifically, this means a full-time national coordinator will no longer be available for organization and outreach, although ASNE will continue to provide leadership and resources for marking Sunshine Week next March.

Please help us to grow our efforts to shine a light into those dark corners.

Learn more about making a secure donation at the ASNE Web site. And don't forget to let us know if your company offers matching gifts, as those will be matched again by Knight Foundation.

Thanks for your support.

Martin Kaiser Is New ASNE President

2009-05-05T12:15:46-04:00

Martin Kaiser, editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, talks about his upcoming year as president of the American Society of News Editors. Read more in The American Editor.

Rays of Sunshine

2009-04-20T16:08:54-04:00

Outstanding open govt. work by newspapers is honored:

Today, Mark Mahoney of the of The Post-Star, Glens Falls, N.Y., won a Pulitzer for editorial writing "for his relentless, down-to-earth editorials on the perils of local government secrecy, effectively admonishing citizens to uphold their right to know." http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2009-Editorial-Writing.

Last week, The Oklahoman was honored by the Society of Professional Journalists for Public Service in Online Journalism for its "Your Right to Know" series (http://www.spj.org/news.asp?REF=878#878). The paper, reporter Bryan Dean and opinion writer Owen Canfield won SPJ First Amendment Awards from the Fort Worth Pro Chapter (http://newsok.com/news-staff-wins-awards/article/3362628) for work on open government issues.

Sun Spots

2009-04-17T15:21:31-04:00

The first of the Sunshine Week 2009 gallery posts are up on the Web site.

Lots more are on the way, so be sure to keep checking back every now and again.

New Federal FOIA Guidelines Bring Back Presumption of Openness

2009-03-19T17:33:24-04:00

There could be fewer Sunshine Week presents more welcome in the FOI community than the new "Holder memo," a directive from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder directing all executive branch departments and agencies to administer Freedom of Information Act requests with a presumption of openness.

The move overrides the Ashcroft memo, so-named for the former attorney general who gave agencies more leeway to deny FOIA requests.

"By restoring the presumption of disclosure that is at the heart of the Freedom of Information Act, we are making a critical change that will restore the public’s ability to access information in a timely manner," said Attorney General Holder.

"The American people have the right to information about their government’s activities, and these new guidelines will ensure they are able to obtain that information under principles of openness and transparency," he added.

"Today's memorandum sends a clear message: when in doubt, let it out. The lights are back on," noted Sunshine in Government Initiative Coordinator Rick Blum. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Executive Director Lucy Dalglish commented, "The Holder memo is a refreshing change from the disastrous standard set by former Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2001." And National Security Archive General Counsel Meredith Fuchs remarked, "The new attorney general guidelines read as if there is a new show in town and for the first time in eight years everyone is welcome to come see it."

Holder's announcement and a copy of the memo can be viewed at the Department of Justice Web site.

Sunshine Week 2009 Survey of State Government Info. Online

2009-03-15T04:10:22-04:00

Most Americans can easily find videos of water skiing squirrels on the Internet but they’ll have less luck finding out whether their children's school buses and classrooms are safe, or if neighborhood gas stations are overcharging.

The Sunshine Week 2009 Survey of State Government Information online found that while more and more government records are being posted online, some of the most important information is being left offline. And in some cases governments are charging taxpayers to access records that they already paid for, such as death certificates.

Teams of surveyors scanned government Web sites in every U.S. state to look for 20 different kinds of public records. The results were released today at the start of Sunshine Week 2009, which runs March 15-21. The study was developed by Sunshine Week, the American Society of Newspaper Editors' Freedom of Information Committee, the National Freedom of Information Coalition, and the Society of Professional Journalists' FOI Committee.

Read the report here.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT STILL VIEWED AS SECRETIVE; PUBLIC SUPPORTS PRESIDENT'S DIRECTIVE ON TRANSPARENCY

2009-03-13T14:30:43-04:00

For the first time in four years, public opinion about government secrecy has leveled off, although more than seven in 10 adults still consider the federal government to be secretive, according to the 2009 Sunshine Week survey by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University.

Since 2006, the percentage of adults who believe the federal government to be somewhat or very secretive has grown steadily; from 62 percent in 2006 to 74 percent in 2008. The latest survey finds 73 percent characterizing federal government as secretive.

This mood is perhaps buoyed by the nearly eight in 10 adults who think President Obama's Freedom of Information directive calling for a presumption of disclosure is the right thing to do.

"Trust in government has been on the decline for some time in the United States. The previous administration's disclosure policies certainly contributed to public skepticism," said Jerry Miller, director of the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University. "People now appear more optimistic, but still guarded, about President Obama and the current administration's disclosure practices under the Freedom of Information Act."

As in previous years' surveys, people see their state and local governments as more open than the federal system. At the state level, 54 percent view government as open, 44 percent as secretive. People also are more trusting of local public officials. More than half, 56 percent, say their local government is very or somewhat open, with 44 percent rating it as very or somewhat open.

"The more open our government, the more inclusive the processes that impact our everyday lives," noted Rich Boehne, president and chief executive officer of The E.W. Scripps Co.

Two-thirds of adults (67 percent) say they've heard of the federal Freedom of Information Act, and when told about it, slightly more (77 percent) think it is a good law. However, hardly anyone surveyed had ever used it. Nine in 10 adults (94 percent) have never requested information using a FOIA request. None of this, of course, dulls their skepticism about compliance with the law: 61 percent say they believe the federal government only sometimes, rarely or never obeys FOIA law.

"It's heartening there is a reversal in the downward trend of public confidence in the openness of the federal government," said Andrew Alexander, co-chair of the American Society of Newspaper Editor's FOI Committee.

"But it's sobering to note that more than half of those surveyed said they still believe their government only sometimes, rarely or never abides by disclosure requirements mandated by law," added Alexander, who is ombudsman at The Washington Post.

The survey of 946 adults was conducted by telephone from Feb. 16 through March 11 by the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University under a grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation. The survey has a margin of error of about 4 percentage points.

The survey has been commissioned by ASNE for Sunshine Week since 2006, Sunshine Week is a non-partisan open government initiative led by ASNE, with print, online and broadcast media; public officials; civic groups and non-profit organizations; public and special libraries; educators and students; religious leaders; and others. It is primarily funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

See more results at the Sunshine Week site.

Sunshine Week 2009 Toolkit

2009-03-10T22:49:40-04:00

The Sunshine Week 2009 Toolkit is being updated just about every day. Everything in there is free to any participant to use during Sunshine Week 2009, March 15-21. Offerings include:

Opinion columns: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) discusses recent Freedom of Information victories — and what still needs to be done; Jerry Stephens, whose son is heading to Afghanistan, explaining why he believes the media should have access to the homecoming of soldiers killed in action overseas; Arkansas state Sen. Dan Greenberg (R) makes the case for why the criminal histories of officials should be public; along with others already posted and still coming in.

Editorial cartoons: Nick Anderson, Richard Bartholomew, Ed Colley, Ed Hall, Barry Hunau, Tim Jackson, Don Landgren and Rob Smith Jr. are among the editorial cartoonists contributing their work for Sunshine Week.

Informational graphics: McClatchy-Tribune Direct has created a package of info graphics available in a variety of formats for use by clients and non-clients during Sunshine Week.

Public service ads: Print, Web and broadcast public service ads are available in English and Spanish. Developed for a young adults, the ads emphasize the theme of using public information to become a local hero.

Still to come: Friday, March 13, the results of a Scripps Howard News Service-Ohio University public opinion poll on government transparency will be released, along with a related McClatchy-Tribune Direct info graphic. Sunday, March 15, Sunshine Week kicks off with the release of a nationwide survey of state government information online.

Find it all at www.sunshineweek.org.