March 16-22: Sunshine Week for open government

Sunshine Week, a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information, will be observed March 16-22. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, non-profits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know. News outlets are encouraged to join in the effort to build public support for open government and maccess by the public and journalists. One focus of the effort in this big election year is to put the issue to candidates.

Sunshine Week is led by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and is funded primarily by a challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. For a list of regional and state coordinators, click here. The coordinator for weekly and community newspapers is Steve Haynes, publisher of the Oberlin Herald in Kansas and president of the National Newspaper Association. He is at 785-475-2206 or here.