American Society of News Editors gets a partner for Sunshine Week
The next Sunshine Week is March 11-17, 2012, and this time around ASNE will have the help of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in managing the initiative. ASNE launched the non-partisan effort to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information in 2005 with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Coordinating Sunshine Week activities for ASNE is Pete Weitzel, former executive director of the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government. On the Reporters Committee side is Communications Director Debra Gersh Hernandez, who was Sunshine Week coordinator from 2004-2009. The original grant from the Knight Foundation continues to provide funding for the program, as does financial support from the Gridiron Club and Foundation of Washington.
“We’ve been strong supporters of Sunshine Week since the initiative began,” said Reporters Committee Executive Director Lucy Dalglish. “We look forward to working closely with ASNE, the partner organizations and individual participants across the country.”
For Sunshine Week 2012, we will be conducting another national search for a “Local Hero” who helped his or her community by fighting for or using open government laws. We hope you will consider reporting on your community’s local FOI heroes during Sunshine Week as another way of telling the right-to-know story, and that you will submit a nomination for someone who warrants national recognition. We will issue an announcement about the contest shortly.
News organizations across the country are gearing up to plan special Sunshine Week investigative and news feature reports, initiate staff and guest columns, and editorialize on open government issues. As March 11-17 approaches, be sure to check the Sunshine Week website for story ideas and a variety of opinion columns, editorial cartoons, house ads and other free materials.