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Sunshine Week promotes access

Welcome to Sunshine Week 2013. This is the week during which media outlets across the nation point out the importance of openness in government offices and access to vital information.
A transparent and accessible government is obviously a priority for newspapers and the media generally. But it’s also important to all citizens, businesses and organizations that need to interact with government entities at all levels.
When our government is responsive to its constituents, we all win.
The idea for such an observance came from the American Society of Newspaper Editors back in 2005. It’s since been embraced by a wide variety of media groups, including the Illinois Press Association.
Susan Goldberg, ASNE president, summarized the universal importance of the effort.
“Of course, open government is important to journalists,” she said. “But even more, open government is really at the heart of democracy by giving citizens the information we all need.”
What does such openness look like? It’s when public officials willingly provide public information to citizens. It’s when public bodies discuss the public’s business in open meetings rather than retreat to closed sessions when the topic doesn’t meet the short list of conditions that justify a closed meeting. It’s when government bodies follow the law and publish the required public notices that keep the public informed.
Illinois has clear guidelines for keeping government open. Our Freedom of Information Act and our Open Meetings Act set forth the requirements for government entities. The working out of those guidelines is often a little less clear. It’s often too easy to go into closed session for a legitimate reason (to talk about a specific personnel situation, for instance), but then allow the conversation to drift to other topics not allowed under the open meeting rules. Those secondary conversations may be more comfortable for the public officials to discuss behind closed doors, but it's a violation of state law do so out of the hearing of the public.  
As representatives of the public, the media have a job to do. We are the eyes and ears of the public. Without openness and access, we can’t do that job.
Sunshine Week serves as a good reminder that when the sun shines on the workings of our government, that government always works better for the people it serves.
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