SUNSHINE WEEK: Victories and setbacks for open government
March 17, 2008
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A citizen's right to know and
journalists' rights to report are threatened every day, say the organizers of
Sunshine Week, who planned the weeklong program to highlight freedom of
information issues and emphasize the importance of open government. The Student
Press Law Center is celebrating Sunshine Week with a series of reports on how
student journalists can encourage open government and use open records to expand
their journalistic horizons and let the sunshine in.
In a new,
$450 million, state-of-the-art museum of news in Washington, D.C., media
professionals, government officials and open-government advocates gathered on
March 14 at the 10th annual National Freedom of Information Day Conference to
discuss recent changes to the Freedom of Information Act and the importance of
sunshine laws to journalists. The conference was an early kick-off for Sunshine
Week, an event that educates the public about open government, which began March
16 and runs through March 22. The week-long observance is sponsored by the
American Society of Newspaper Editors.
Sunshine Week often features events like the Newseum's FOI Day to
promote awareness among journalists and policymakers on issues concerning public
access to information. These events serve as a way to educate journalists on
recent changes and trends that affect their ability to get records from public
institutions.
Sunshine Week focuses not only on the federal Freedom of Information Act
but also on other topics surrounding open government, such as state open-records
laws. These laws are the functional equivalents of the federal Freedom of
Information Act for state public institutions, and they are usually more
relevant for student journalists reporting on issues involving their high
schools or universities.
Recent examples of both progress and setbacks to open government are
prevalent. In Connecticut, a commission decided Feb. 13 that the Yale
University Police Department was performing a public function under state law,
and that the public should have access to its records. In Virginia, the General
Assembly on Feb. 26 passed a bill restricting the disclosure of information
about donors to three public universities, much to the chagrin of
open-government advocates. In Pennsylvania, a new law was signed Feb. 14 that
updated the state's open records laws, informally regarded as one of the
worst in the nation. For better or worse, sunshine and access to information
are news these days.
In December, Congress passed and President Bush signed a bill updating the
federal FOI law for the first time in more than a decade. Corinna Zarek, FOI
Service Center director for the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the
Press, said two of the biggest changes are the addition of penalties for
agencies that take too long to respond to requests and the creation of an agency
to mediate disputes when FOIA requests are denied. At FOI Day, however, some
open-government advocates voiced concern over how well the law will be
implemented.
In the spirit of Sunshine Week, the Student Press Law Center each day will
feature stories devoted to open-government issues. We have conducted several
open-records tests to see how easily we could access information such as police
incident reports at public and private universities, reimbursement records for
high school superintendents, and student government association minutes and
annual budgets.
We hope student journalists can take this collection of information and use
it to enhance the quality of reporting at their institutions, learning from our
experiences and drawing from the most effective strategies that we have learned
through this process.
By A. Matthew Deal and Emilie Yam, SPLC staff writers
© 2008 Student Press Law Center
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