Begging her forgiveness, I'm going to share what my fellow Marsha had to say. Marsha Shuler is the co-director of the National Federation of Press Women's First Amendment Network and is also a former NFPW president.
I couldn't summarize the history and meaning of Sunshine Week any better myself, so I'm letting our expert do the "talking" (thank you Marsha!):
It's time to observe "Sunshine Week."
March 12-18 is the annual national celebration
of access to public information sponsored by the American Society of News
Editors and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Knowledge is
power and access to public records is critical to the democracy we so cherish.
So
it is during this week the NFPW leadership team encourages members to do their
part in stressing the importance of government openness and accountability
through opinion columns, letters to the editor, staging events such as panel discussions
and workshops about the latest developments in freedom of information resources
and what threats exist today to public access to information important to
people's lives and their communities.
The
week coincides with the March 16 birthday of U.S. President James Madison, an
architect of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights who championed the First
Amendment.
Madison
said: “A popular government, without popular information, or the means of
acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or perhaps both.
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own
governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”
Marsha also sent me this item about another important event:
April
has a notable day as well as April 2 is International Fact-Checking Day. International Fact-Checking Day is coordinated by the International Fact-Checking Network in
partnership with fact-checking organizations around the world. The International
Fact-Checking Network, launched in September 2015 is a forum for fact-checkers
worldwide hosted by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. It has some suggestions for activities - among them a
"factcheckathon" exhorting readers to flag fake stories on Facebook
and a "hoax off" among top debunked claims.
