Sunshine Week - Society of Professional Journalists

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Your right to know • March 12-18, 2023

Let the Sunshine In!
FOI Activities for Chapters, Classrooms and Newsrooms

Sunshine Week

– Sunshine Week Toolkit [sunshineweek.org]
– Sunshine Week website [sunshineweek.org]
– Chapter FOI program ideas
– Campus FOI resources
– FOI activities for newsrooms
– Writing about FOI
– Curriculum and classroom ideas for teachers
– FOI resources

Tweets by @SunshineWeek

SPJ's Black Hole Award: The Society of Professional Journalists launched the Black Hole Award in order to highlight the most heinous violations of the public’s right to know. By exposing examples of unnecessary and harmful secrecy, we hope to educate the public to their rights and hold government accountable. To learn more, visit the Black Hole Award web page.

Reporter’s Guide to FERPA: Navigating the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act: Ever have a tough time getting public records from schools or universities? We feel your pain and are here to help you. The federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act has been twisted beyond recognition, keeping school lunch menus, graduation honors and athletic travel records secret. Take back your right to information with this guide, produced by the Society of Professional Journalists in conjunction with the Georgia First Amendment Foundation.

Fostering FOI

It’s our duty as journalists, and a key mission for SPJ, to shine light into the dark recesses of government secrecy. To that end, this SPJ Web site provides ideas for chapters, newsrooms and instructors to promote and further freedom of information in their communities. We’ve gleaned the best of chapter FOI programs from recent years as well as great Sunshine Week projects. We’ve gathered tips, facts and quotable expert sources for writing stories or editorials about FOI. We’ve provided classroom activities for instructors and ideas for newsroom brown-bags. These ideas can be applied during National Sunshine Week or any time of the year. Let the sunshine in!

Sunshine Week

National Sunshine Week has been celebrated every March since 2005, thanks to the hard work of the American Society of News Editors. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civics groups, non-profits, schools and libraries. The activities are funded from a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to enlighten the public about their right to government information and strengthen their communities.

Click here to contact the Project Sunshine Chair in your state.