Sunshine Week
March 12th, 2006 | Published in Public Records
This week is Sunshine Week, when newspapers draw attention to the importance of access to public records through editorial cartoons, columns and news stories. Some notable pieces:
The AP’s assessment that “many federal agencies fall far short of the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act, repeatedly failing to meet reporting deadlines while citizens wait ever longer for documents.” Rebecca Carr of Cox News has more details on the federal FOIA program.
The News & Observer’s special section on public records availability in North Carolina.
Ohio’s consideration of whether to establish a government agency to help citizens obtain public records.
After a weekend at the NICAR conference in Newark seeing how crucial public records were to many different types of investigations and stories, it’s easy for journalists to understand why access is so important. The public needs to know how important it is for them, too.