ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 14, Number 18
March 2, 2005

In This Issue: Save the Date for Sunshine Week

Sunshine Week: March 13-19, 2005

Opening a dialogue about the public's right of access to government information is the focus of Sunshine Sunday and Sunshine Week: Your Right to Know, which kick off March 13, 2005 and continue through the following week.

Participating daily and weekly newspapers, magazines, online sites, and radio and television broadcasters will feature editorials, op-eds, editorial cartoons, and news and feature stories that drive public discussion about why open government is important to everyone, not just to journalists.

Sunshine Sunday began in Florida in 2002. Led by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, the event generated editorials, op-eds, editorial cartoons and news stories about the importance of open government. FSNE estimates that some 300 exemptions to open government laws were defeated in the legislative sessions that followed the three Sunshine Sundays, many because of the increased public awareness that resulted. Since then, several other states have launched similar initiatives.

For more information on this great upcoming event, visit www.sunshineweek.org


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ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff.  Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Carol Ashworth, Don Essex, Joshua Farrelman, Erin Haggerty, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Carrie Lowe, Kathy Mitchell, Carrie Russell. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.