The benefits of sunshine
We are in the midst of Sunshine Week, a collaboration among journalists, civic leaders, educators and others with a stake in government transparency to shine a light on the importance of open records and freedom of information.
Across the country, journalists are celebrating their Sunshine wins but also calling out governments where they fall short. A few examples:
In Michigan, veteran journalist Devin Scillian jokes in the Detroit Free Press that people might mistake Sunshine Week for Daylight Saving Time. He calls FOIA his friend “Foya.” But he uses humor to shed light on a serious issue — the state has been among the worst in the country when it comes to ethics and transparency.
In Milwaukee, The Journal Sentinel used its pages to tell people how to file a request — what to include, where to file it and what to do if a request is rejected.
In South Carolina, Post and Courier editor Jeff Taylor this week is pointing to stories his newsroom has done thanks to open records, including one on a $3.4 million taxpayer-funded welcome center that has become a hunting lodge for local officials and their friends.
The Vermont Digger gave space to Tanya Marshall, a state official who oversees records and archives and who argues that full transparency is necessary for government accountability.
Without it, she says, “we’re in the dark.”
