Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > Other Resources OTHER RESOURCES

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1 OTHER RESOURCES

2 63 Sunshine Resources Sunshine Week was designed specifically to allow participants to get involved at a level comfortable to them, whether it was running a wire service brief on their Web page or producing a weeklong investigative series with sidebars and graphics. Every item helped further the cause of preserving open government. There were many resources for Sunshine Week 2005 that were available via the online Toolkit. The free Toolkit materials were generously created by volunteers who contributed their work to the national cause. Sunshine Week 2005-specific items are archived at sunshineweek/sw05toolkit, while materials that can be utilized all year are in the main Toolkit section of the Web site ( sunshineweek/toolkits). In addition, The Associated Press, Knight Ridder/Tribune Graphics and several wire services signed on to the cause, producing hundreds of articles, graphics and online materials some provided free in the Toolkit and others for their members and clients that were used nationwide.

3 64 The York Sunday News used a series from The Associated Press in Pennsylvania to offer readers a striking package with information from a statewide FOI audit, which was supplemented by AP graphics showing federal agency FOIA response rates. Hundreds of newspapers, broadcasters and online sites carried Associated Press Sunshine Week stories and graphics about several Freedom of Information issues, including the decline in access, the longest standing FOIA request (24 years and counting), the Sunshine Week opinion poll and more. They can be viewed online at

4 65 News services reports, such as those from Copley and Newhouse shown here, helped spread the news from Washington about open government and federal legislation issues, particularly Freedom of Information Act reform proposed by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). Sunshine Week Toolkit items often were used together. This grouping from The Idaho Statesman in Boise, incorporated an editorial from the Denver Post, a cartoon by Ed Stein of the Rocky Mountain News, and the Sunshine Week logo.

5 66 The Austin American-Statesman put its own graphic on this Sunshine Week Toolkit column about the danger of government secrecy by First Amendment Ombudsman Paul McMasters of the First Amendment Center. Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), co-sponsors of Freedom of Information Act reform legislation, penned Sunshine Week Toolkit columns about the importance of open government, which were used by many participants, including The Outer Banks Sentinel of Nags Head, N.C.

6 67 Knight Ridder/Tribune Graphics in Washington created four informational graphics for use during Sunshine Week by clients and non-clients alike. Topics included using the Freedom of Information Act, which is pictured here; states grades for secrecy; the increase in classifications; and spending on classification versus declassification. Then-president of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, Matt Davies of The Journal News in White Plains, N.Y., rallied his colleagues to create editorial cartoons for the Sunshine Week Toolkit. The cartoons, including one by Davies pictured here, were widely used by papers large and small across the country, and are archived online at sunshineweek/sw05toolkit.