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From ASNE President Pam Fine: Today we're sharing the Sunshine Week budget

 
On this ASNE Sunshine Week page and also at sunshineweek.org, you'll find the budget for this year's special story package for March 13-19.

The entire package will be available free of charge for everyone and anyone to publish online and in print. Editorial cartoons and additional opinion columns are also available in the Sunshine Week Toolkit, which will be updated daily.
 
Pam Fine
One of the best things about being ASNE president is that you have a bully pulpit to champion outstanding programs that support government transparency and the public's right to information. Sunshine Week is one of those programs.

On this ASNE Sunshine Week page and also at sunshineweek.org, you'll find the budget for this year's special story package for March 13-19

Thanks to The Associated Press, The McClatchy Company, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and The Sacramento Bee, the package includes muscular stories on efforts by state legislators to hide information from their constituents, including who they're meeting with, where their campaign donors are employed or what funds their state pensions are invested in.

The package also reports on secrecy around college endowments. Another particularly commendable story explains how AP joined forces with the editor of a gay newspaper in Florida who was told it would cost $400,000 to see whether emails by police officers included derogatory comments.

In an intriguing opinion piece, ASNE board member Anders Gyllenhaal, vice president for news at The McClatchy Company, offers up five questions likely to shape our First Amendment freedoms as we head deeper into the digital age. He even tees up the provocative question of whether speech by computer-generated programs, such as Siri, will be protected by the courts.

The entire package will be available free of charge for everyone and anyone to publish online and in print. Editorial cartoons and additional opinion columns are also available in the Sunshine Week Toolkit, which will be updated daily.

All of those involved in developing the materials hope you'll use them to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. That's the purpose of Sunshine Week, which celebrates its 11th anniversary this year.

Personally, I hope you'll also use Sunshine Week to herald your own efforts to support public access to government records and meetings, as well as government transparency in general. 

Years ago, as a young editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, I heard CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite in a speech implore journalists to "toot your own horns" to remind the public of the value of vigilant coverage. If we don't, no one else will, he said.

Take this opportunity to share with your own audiences your efforts on their behalf.

If you haven't already signed on as a participant in Sunshine Week, I hope you'll go to the participants page and do so. You'll be in good company with dozens of news organizations, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know.

A special thanks to our partners at the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press and to the news organizations mentioned above, as well as Tribune News Service, and to individuals John Barron, Greg Borowski, Sally Buzbee, Brian Carovillano, Anders Gyllenhaal, David Haynes, Debra Gersh Hernandez, Sarah Nordgren, George Stanley, Joyce Terhaar, Tom Verdin and Jocelyn Winnecke. I also want to thank all of the Sunshine Week contributors, especially editorial cartoonists and opinion writers, who provide free content for participants, as well as the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Bloomberg, and The Gridiron Club and Foundation for their generous support of Sunshine Week. 

For more information about Sunshine Week, visit sunshineweek.org. Follow Sunshine Week on Twitter and Facebook, and use the hashtag #SunshineWeek.

Two Sunshine Week events you don't want to miss

National Freedom of Information Day

On March 11 at the Knight Conference Center at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., the 2016 National Freedom of Information Day conference will gather individuals from all areas relating to freedom of information and open records to address transparency in government and freedom of information laws and practices. 

One of the featured sessions, moderated by Gene Policinski, Newseum's chief operating officer and member of the ASNE First Amendment Committee, will invite ASNE and AP to discuss our Sunshine Week reporting project. 

The conference is free and open to the public but requires registration. Those who are unable to attend can
watch it live here. For more information and to RSVP, click here

Is Our Government Too Open? 

Reformers have tried to improve public access to information about decision-making in government for decades, but some influential commentators now argue that the drive for transparency has gone too far and undermined the capacity of elected officials to reach agreement on policies and to make those policies work. 

On March 15 at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute in Columbia, Missouri, the debate on this issue will take place between two noted college professors, Bruce Cain, professor at the Stanford University Department of Political Science, and Charles Lewis, executive editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University School of Communication in Washington, D.C. 

The debate is free and open to the public but requires registration. Those who are unable to attend can watch it live by registering for a free account on RJI Online and logging in on March 15. Click here for more information and to RSVP. 

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