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Sunshine Week 2006 Online Gallery Six

Published: June 08, 2006
Last Updated: June 08, 2006

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Each morning during Sunshine Week, readers of The Sun in Lowell, Mass., found the banner pictured above on the front pages of their newspapers.

"The response from readers was exceptional," said Editor Jim Campanini. "People were really engaged."

In fact, the message resonated so well not only in the community but also with staff, that The Sun is considering including the message, "Today's news is brought to you by the First Amendment," as a permanent feature of its editorial page, Campanini said.

Beyond the banner, flanked by lead articles with bold graphics on Monday and Friday that looked at government secrecy at the federal and local levels, respectively, daily Page One stories examined pending legislation affecting the state's Open Meeting Law, First Amendment lessons in local schools, and communities' difficulties maintaining records with diminishing resources.

And if that weren't enough, The Sun conducted open records audits of 16 government offices, which found "atrocious compliance," according to a local lawyer quoted in the article. "Protecting the freedom to know" was the theme of the Sunday Focus commentary section kicking off the week.

To view a PDF file of The Sun's work, click here.

Defending the First Amendment and open government is nothing new for The Sun, winner of the 2006 Morley L. Piper First Amendment Award presented by the New England Newspaper Association. In the past year, the paper has prevailed in six legal challenges to government access, which Campanini is quick to note were "won on behalf of the readers, not The Sun.

"We had a good year as far as the First Amendment is concerned," he added. "We're proud of what we did."

The San Diego Union-Tribune Integrated its print and online coverage, providing Sunshine Week coverage in the newspaper, while linking to other resources for research and information via its Web site.

"Throughout these pages this week, we will bring focus to your right—an individual's right—to access government," explained Editor Karin Winner in a front-page letter to readers. "We offer specific help tomorrow with a full page in the Metro section that tells you where you can get certain information and how to go about obtaining it.

"We welcome the opportunity Sunshine Week affords to help you better understand how we in the media do our jobs and to shine special light on our watchdog role. It is a role we have practiced with particular vigor over the past year, using the federal Freedom of Information Act and the state Public Records Act as tools in this pursuit," Winner added.

Other reports included tips on where to get information, a Q&A about accessing public records, and Web sites where FOI and other data are available.

The Union-Tribune also conducted an audit of the county's 18 cities, seeking "the city manager's 2005 calendar, the city manager's 2005 credit-card receipts and expenses, and an electronic database of all the checks the city issued in 2005."

The paper reported that, "San Diego County has 18 cities, each with its own maze of bureaucracy that can be difficult to navigate.

"But when it comes to turning over public records to The San Diego Union-Tribune, these cities can be fairly responsive if prodded and pestered long and hard enough."

Additional links on the Web site connected readers to the federal Freedom of Information Act, California's Public Records Act and related information, non-profits and other open government organizations, publications, libraries and local government sites.

Gannett's NewsWatch newsletter profiled the efforts of some of the company's newspapers and its news service during Sunshine Week.

"The work ranged from surveys of government agencies to see how accessible public records are, to a forum in Shreveport on the Patriot Act," wrote news executive Ann Clark in the roundup. "There were primers on how to access records and dozens of editorials and columns."

In addition to the work by the newspapers, Gannett News Service "shed light on the responsiveness of federal agencies to requests for information and explored the issue in its weekly newsmaker Q&A," Clark reported. GNS also "held an in-house workshop, part of which focused on strategies for getting around roadblocks to obtain government records."

Gannett papers participating in Sunshine Week included the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D.; Asbury Park Press in Neptune, N.J.; The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss.; Daily Record in Morristown, N.J.; Florida Today in Brevard; the Green Bay (Wis.) Press-Gazette; The Greenville (S.C.) News; the Hattiesburg (Miss.) American; The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, W.Va.; The Honolulu (Hawaii) Advertiser; The Indianapolis Star; Marshfield (Wis.) News-Herald; the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.; The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wis., which shared its reports with other Gannett Wisconsin newspapers; The Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal; Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y.; the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle; The Times in Shreveport, La.; and USA Today, based in McLean, Va.

"At a time when national surveys show a rising concern about secrecy in government and that open government leads to a more effective democracy, it is important to show our readers how open government helps them live their lives," Clark wrote.

"As Caroline Kong, a Hawaii resident who had to fight to get her daughter's school records, told The Honolulu Advertiser during its weeklong coverage of Sunshine Week: 'It seems to be their [the state Department of Education] standard operating procedure to talk around your question, stall you, wear you out and hope you give up.'

"For all the Carolina Kongs in our communities, may we also never give up," Clark added.

The League of Women Voters announced its Sunshine Week plans the previous November, with the launch of its "Openness in Government: Looking for the Sunshine" project.

"Finding out how government is serving the public has always been somewhat difficult, and in a post9/11 age, these challenges are even greater," said then-LWV President Kay J. Maxwell when announcing the project. "The government is becoming less open and more secretive in the name of homeland security at a time when many feel greater accountability is needed."

With funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami, the League was able to select 14 chapters to host community forums in conjunction with a national teleconference, "Are We Safer in the Dark," sponsored by LWV and others, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors/Sunshine Week.

LWV also produced a resource guide for local chapters that wanted to host Sunshine Week or other open government events. The guide includes information about and recent threats to federal and state laws, as well as tips for how citizens can get involved with these issues at the local level.

Coverage of the national panel discussion is posted on the LWV site, as are several links to news coverage of local League events from Sunshine Week.

In Michigan, an FBI field agent called the president of the League of Women Voters of Berrien and Cass Counties to complain about comments regarding the Patriot Act made by a panelist from Common Cause during the LWVBCC Sunshine Week forum. The call prompted the presidents of the LWVBCC chapter and Common Cause to write a letter of complaint to FBI Director Robert Mueller.

"When the country has far more pressing security and terror concerns, we question the FBI using precious resources hounding leaders of two of the most distinguished citizen advocacy organizations in the country," they wrote. "Is this the kind of behavior citizen activists can expect from the FBI? To us, it smacks of intimidation."

The FBI, however, told WWMT News 3 in Kalamazoo, that "the purpose of the call was not to intimidate or coerce. The purpose of the call was to offer an opportunity to get out correct and precise information about the Patriot Act and how we conduct our investigations and utilize the Act to protect individuals in the country."

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