What is Sunshine Week and why does it matter to me?
Sunshine Week is a national initiative to spotlight the importance of public access to government and freedom of information. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, non-profit organizations, schools and others interested in the public's right to know.
Sunshine Week is set aside every year to remind Floridians of the importance of zealously guarding the public's ability to know what its government - the government of the people - is doing. It is about the public's right to know what its government is doing, and why. Sunshine Week seeks to enlighten and empower people to play an active role in their government at all levels, and to give them access to information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger.
Go to the FSNE's Sunshine Sunday Web site to see related articles from newspapers across the state.
How did it begin?
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. FSNE estimates that some 300 exemptions to open government laws were defeated in the legislative sessions that followed its three Sunshine Sundays, because of the increased public and legislative awareness that resulted from the Sunshine Sunday reports and commentary.
Several states followed Florida's lead, and in June 2003, the American Society of Newspaper Editors hosted a Freedom of Information Summit in Washington where the seeds for Sunshine Week were planted.
With an inaugural grant from John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of Miami, the ASNE FOI Committee took up the challenge and launched Sunshine Week in March 2005. It continues to be celebrated each year in mid-March, coinciding with National FOI Day and James Madison's birthday on March 16.
Why is access to public records important?
The public’s ability to review public records enables citizens to see how their tax money is being spent and how government decisions are made. It provides the public with another check and balance. There are countless examples where the press or the public used freedom of information laws to bring to light inefficiencies, incompetence and outright corruption.
