As some governments misinform, Sunshine Week is a better time than ever to advocate government openness, honesty

By Al Cross, Director and Professor

Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, University of Kentucky

This is Sunshine Week, but I fear it's dimming.

The annual observance to remind Americans of the importance of open government seems to be fading, as journalism and the news business face business-side challenges that are more pressing than government secrecy.

The observance is led by the News Leaders Association, formerly the American Society of News Editors, ad before that the American Society of Newspaper Editors. The name's evolution reflects the flattening of the editorial corps at U.S. newspapers, who have been the leading advocates of open government. Editors and other leaders are more pressed for time than ever; you can detect that in the papers' content every day.

Perhaps reflecting all that, the NLA Sunshine Week page offers no content for news outlets to share with their audiences, its Sunshine Week page on Facebook hasn't been updated since 2021, and its last tweet about the observance was March 9. That didn't even appear on the @SunshineWeek page on Twitter, which hasn't been updated since last year's Sunshine Week. NLA has not replied to my request for comment.

Thankfully, open-government activists are posting on social media about #SunshineWeek, often sharing articles and graphics posted by state newspaper associations, which seem to have taken the lead. That's great, but most of the articles I've seen from them are designed for use in their home states. We're missing a broader overview, at what seems to be an ideal time for it.

Sunshine Week is about open government. That means governments should be transparent, and transparency suggests that they should also be honest. That is especially meaningful right now, when there is a global information war about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Russian and Chinese governments are flooding the media with misinformation and disinformation, and that should make Americans appreciate the type of government we have.

We have a democratic republic that is responsive to the citizens, or is supposed to be. An open, transparent government is by nature more responsive, and thus more democratic. At a time when our nation faces powerful adversaries who use disinformation and attack the very idea of democracy, we need to remind Americans that their democratic republic requires open government.