| Holiday Name: | Sunshine Week |
| Type: | national |
| Date: | The week containing March 16 |
Sunshine Week is a U.S. nonpartisan collaboration among groups in the journalism, civic, government and private sectors that shines a light on the importance of public records and open government. It is based at the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project
In 2024, efforts being are coordinated by the Brechner FOI Project, MuckRock, Society of Professional Journalists, the Radio Television Digital News Association and a growing list of partners.
Sunshine Week occurs each year in mid-March, coinciding with James Madison's birthday.
During Sunshine Week, news organizations, civic and watchdog groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and other participants engage public discussion on the importance of open government through news and feature articles and opinion columns; social media campaigns; infographics; editorial cartoons; public service advertising; public seminars and online or in-person forums. The purpose of the week is to highlight the fact that "government functions best when it operates in the open."[1] In many states, however, legislatures exempt themselves from public-records laws, claiming "legislative immunity."[2]
The Florida Society of Newspaper Editors launched Sunshine Sunday in 2002 in response to efforts by some Florida legislators to create scores of new exemptions to the state's public records law. The following year, the idea of a national Sunshine Sunday was raised at an ASNE Freedom of Information summit.
In the planning stages, it was decided that the initiative needed to be more than a single Sunday, and Sunshine Week was established in March 2005 by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.The first nationwide Sunshine Week took place March 13–19, 2005.
In 2019, ASNE and the Associated Press Media Editors merged to form the News Leaders Association (NLA). In December 2023, NLA placed Sunshine Week with the Brechner FOI Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.