Warren Watson
First Thoughts
March 25, 2008

Sunshine: now more than ever

Hoosiers have endured lots of doom, gloom and March rain this spring, but there was a ray of sunshine last week.

Sunshine Week, to be more exact.

March 16-22 marked the annual Sunshine Week, a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government, freedom of information and the First Amendment.

Participants included print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, non-profits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know.

At Ball State, the Departments of Journalism and Telecommunications paired up to co-sponsor a panel discussion that was open to the campus and community. Phil Bremen, a Telecommunications professor, organized and moderated a discussion that included Steve Key, general counsel for the Hoosier State Press Association; Heather Willis Neal, public access counselor for the State of Indiana; filmmaker Omer Salih Mahdi, a Ball State exchange student from Iraq; and me. For 90 minutes, we discussed the importance of freedom of information in our state, nation and the world. We focused on the public’s right to know.

It was a good reminder that a democracy must have a free flow of information to fully function.

We did our part. Thousands of other programs took place around the country. Most emphasized that Sunshine Week is more than a media event. It’s a reminder that every citizen benefits from government in the sunshine, where meetings are as open as possible and information is readily available to every citizen.

Now if we can just that darned sun to shine a little more over our Indiana skies.