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Sunshine Week 2006 Online Gallery Three

Published: May 10, 2006
Last Updated: May 10, 2006

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In an interview with U.S. News & World Report, Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, talked about the need for Sunshine Week and the increasing pace of government secrecy.

Concerns about official secrecy, however, extend beyond the federal government. "In many cases it's even worse at the local level," Aftergood said. "A lot of localities have taken to heart the threat of terrorism and seem to believe that if the local city council does not meet behind closed doors, then the city public works project could be targeted next. Unfortunately, there is an exaggerated sense of fear that has become a driver of public policy."

Aftergood told reporter David E. Kaplan that, "What I'm concerned about is that we may lose sight of our own ideals as a society. We may lose the expectation of open, accountable government. We will simply assume that the most important political decisions are out of reach and beyond our ability to affect."

The League of Women Voters in Billings, Mont., hosted an open government forum during Sunshine Week that was attended by some 60 people, including elected officials and local government department heads, Becky Shay reported in The Billings Gazette.

Among those on the two panels, which were televised on a local station several times during the week were Billings area attorneys, government officials, print and broadcast journalists, and a librarian.

In addition to participating in the forum, The Billings Gazette editorialized on the dangers of official secrecy and open government in Montana.

The Gazette also featured opinion columns on the importance of public involvement in holding government accountable and the state of FOI, and produced a feature story on the Montana Freedom of Information Hotline.

One of the opinion columns, written by Montana FOI Hotline Chairman and SPJ Montana Pro Chapter President Ian Marquand, was distributed to every daily and weekly newspaper in the state by the Montana Newspaper Association. Marquand reports encouraging response.

In the photo featured here by David Grubbs, courtesy of the Gazette, the state lieutenant governor addresses the League forum via video conference.

"Washington Journal," C-SPAN
Clay Bennett, The Christian Science Monitor

Clay Bennett, editorial cartoonist for The Christian Science Monitor, was the guest of Brian Lamb for an hourlong segment on C-SPAN's Washington Journal program, Friday, March 17.

Bennett, president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, joined the program from Boston to discuss Sunshine Week and editorial cartooning. During the course of the program, Lamb featured many of the cartoons from the Sunshine Week Toolkit.

The Washington Journal segment is archived on the C-SPAN site and can be viewed online.

Bennett fielded questions from around the country on issues ranging from 9/11 conspiracies, civil liberties, the role of editorial cartoonists in critiquing government and his career and inspiration.

"This is not meant to be disrespectful. It's respectful of what democracy is all about," he said of editorial cartoons, noting that freedom and open government cannot be rights of convenience. "Security and freedom will always be at odds, but we always have to come down on the side of freedom."

The Providence (R.I.) Journal created a special Web page to house its Sunshine Week coverage. The paper then went further by providing special links for information about open government issues, by including a link to student essays written for Sunshine Week 2005, and by giving readers the opportunity to comment on their experience with access to government information.

Comments to the unscientific poll generally reflected the results, which found more respondents dissatisfied with the amount of information they are getting from their city or town government. Several respondents indicated that money or personal connections were the only way to get information, and many cited delays and non-responsiveness as their top complaints. The town of Cranston, however, got two laudatory postings for its openness.

The PBS weekly newsmagazine "Now" featured a special one-hour report on government secrecy that aired during Sunshine Week.

Video from the program can be viewed on the Now Web site, which also includes links to additional resources and a message board.

Included in Now's special Sunshine Week coverage are links to FOIA classification rules, FOIA history, state FOIA efforts, a reporter's notebook, and online discussions about domestic spying.

The Telegraph in Nashua, N.H., kicked off Sunshine Week with a Perspectives cover column by editor in chief Nick Pappas that was based in part on his query to the paper's Reader Advisory Network about why open government is important to their lives.

"I couldn’t have said it better myself," he wrote of one response. " 'We all need to know the absolute truth to make decisions about what government we will support or protest.' "

Also on the Perspectives front were a column by Sunshine Week Honorary Chairman Hodding Carter III and a cartoon from John Sherffius. Inside was the first of two editorials on the importance of open government.

According to Pappas, The Telegraph featured coverage by The Associated Press and Scripps Howard News Service throughout the week, and he went on a local radio program to discuss open government issues.

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