Sunshine Week impacts more than open government and press freedom

Hat’s off to the News Leaders Association (NLA) and the Society of Professional Journalists for stewarding Sunshine Week 2023. When the American Society of News Editors (which joined with the Associated Press Media Editors to form NLA) launched Sunshine Week in 2005 to promote open, transparent government and press freedom, it selected the week of James Madison’s birthday.

An appropriate date recognizing Madison’s insistence on a national government that had separation of powers and checks and balances. As the author of the Bill of Rights, Madison also added individual rights and freedoms (including for the press) as amendments and constitutional guarantees.

While we continue to embrace ASNE’s objectives surrounding this important week, we should consider that Sunshine Week is not just about government transparency and press freedom. Today, Sunshine Week is about government transparency and our everyone’s freedoms and rights, and the perils to our democracy when they are abused. Sunshine Week is about the freedom and right to know and obtain factual information about our government presented accurately and without partisan interpretation.

Information and communication are central to our democracy’s infrastructure and create an informed and educated public. When information is distorted and education is biased, everyone suffers. The healthy friction that exists in successful democracies is replaced with conflict that diminishes trust in our public institutions, our news media, and ourselves.

Without confidence or trust in our institutions, attaining a level of national civility or unity is doubtful, especially for achieving equality and inclusion. Sunshine Week plays a critical part in restoring trust in media and democracy. More transparency from and access to our governing institutions by the press and the public improves the quality and accuracy of information about them and creates a more informed and educated public.