Giving News Home | People | Calendar | Jobs | News Archives

March 13, 2006

Knight Foundation Supports Sunshine Week

To help raise public awareness and support for open government issues, the American Society of Newspaper Editors is coordinating more than 50 journalism groups for the second national Sunshine Week campaign, which runs March 12-18. Sunshine Week is a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. The program is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

A section on the National Sunshine Week website, sunshineweek.org, asserts that "Sunshine Week is not about journalists, it's not about partisan politics, it's about the public and the importance of protecting and promoting open government. Sunshine week is not about protecting journalists' rights, it's about the right of all citizens to know what their government is doing — and why."

Two recent national polls show that Americans associate open government with effective democracy, and that the public is concerned about the rise in secrecy among government at all levels.

  • In a Scripps Survey Research Center poll, 62 percent of respondents said "public access to government records is critical to the functioning of good government," but only a third of Americans think that the federal government is "very open."

  • In an AccessNorthwest project at the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University, 81 percent of respondents said democracy requires government to operate openly.

"Sunshine Week aims to empower the American people by demanding that government open its doors and allow a free flow of news and information — and I'm proud to be part of it," said Hodding Carter III, past president of the Knight Foundation and an award-winning print and broadcast journalist and former State Department spokesperson.

Sunshine Week includes news coverage, radio and television public service ads, print ads, editorials, community activities and a podcast.


In The News
> More headlines



Home  |  About MCF  |  Grantseeking in Minnesota  |  What Is Grantmaking & Philanthropy?  |  MCF Resources   |
Trends & Analysis  |   Links of Interest  |  Giving Forum Online  |  What's New  |  Members Forum

privacy | terms of use | site map | search | questions or comments? contact MCF's webmaster