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Sunshine Week is a national initiative spearheaded by the News Leaders Association to educate the public about the importance of
open government Open government is the governing doctrine which sustain that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight. In its broadest construction, it opposes reason of state and ...
and the dangers of excessive and unnecessary
secrecy Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controvers ...
. It was established in March 2005 by the
American Society of News Editors The American Society of News Editors (ASNE) was a membership organization for editors, producers or directors in charge of journalistic organizations or departments, deans or faculty at university journalism schools, and leaders and faculty of ...
, now known as the News Leaders Association, with funding from the
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also known as the Knight Foundation, is an American non-profit foundation that provides grants for journalism, communities, and the arts. The organization was founded as the Knight Memorial Education ...
.


Overview

Sunshine Week occurs each year in mid-March, coinciding with
James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...
's birthday and National Freedom of Information Day on the 16th. During Sunshine Week, hundreds of media organizations, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and other participants engage public discussion on the importance of open government through news and feature articles and opinion columns; special Web pages and blogs; infographics; editorial cartoons; public service advertising; public seminars and forums. The purpose of the week is to highlight the fact that "government functions best when it operates in the open." In many states, however, legislatures exempt themselves from public-records laws, claiming "legislative immunity."


History

The Florida Society of Newspaper Editors launched Sunshine Sunday in 2002 in response to efforts by some Florida legislators to create scores of new exemptions to the state's public records law. The following year, the idea of a national Sunshine Sunday was raised at an ASNE
Freedom of Information Freedom of information is freedom of a person or people to publish and consume information. Access to information is the ability for an individual to seek, receive and impart information effectively. This sometimes includes "scientific, indigeno ...
summit. In the planning stages, it was decided that the initiative needed to be more than a single Sunday, and Sunshine Week was born. The first nationwide Sunshine Week took place March 13–19, 2005.


See also

*
Freedom of information legislation Freedom of information laws allow access by the general public to data held by national governments and, where applicable, by state and local governments. The emergence of freedom of information legislation was a response to increasing dissatisfa ...
*
Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...
*
Personally identifiable information Personal data, also known as personal information or personally identifiable information (PII), is any information related to an identifiable person. The abbreviation PII is widely accepted in the United States, but the phrase it abbreviates ha ...
(PII) *
Privacy laws of the United States Privacy laws of the United States deal with several different legal concepts. One is the ''invasion of privacy'', a tort based in common law allowing an aggrieved party to bring a lawsuit against an individual who unlawfully intrudes into thei ...
*
Public Record Office The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was m ...
*
Public records Public records are documents or pieces of information that are not considered confidential and generally pertain to the conduct of government. For example, in California, when a couple fills out a marriage license application, they have the optio ...
*
General Register Office General Register Office or General Registry Office (GRO) is the name given to the civil registry in the United Kingdom, many other Commonwealth nations and Ireland. The GRO is the government agency responsible for the recording of vital record ...


References

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External links


Sunshine WeekNational Freedom of Information (FOI) DayAmerican Library Association page for: Freedom of Information Day
from ''UCB Libraries GovPubs''
Publications from the U.S. Government
from USA.gov
The Center for Public IntegrityIt Took a FOIA Lawsuit to Uncover How the Obama Administration Killed FOIA Reform
Vice News
Microsoft: Government Public Records Tracker from Eskel Porter ConsultingMedia coalition sues McCrory administration over records
WRAL
Delay game: The McCrory administration drags its feet on our public records lawsuit
IndyWeek March observances Awareness weeks in the United States 2005 establishments in the United States