Sunshine Week is organized and sponsored by the American Society of News Editors and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, with support from John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Gridiron Club and Foundation. It is an annual reminder that “democracies die behind closed doors,” a phrase used by federal judge Damon Keith in reference to deportation hearings in the wake of the 9/11 attacks
In a Sunshine Week column, Brian Hunhoff of the Yankton County Observer in South Dakota wrote that “Judge’s Keith’s eloquent phrase could also be applied to thousands of back room government meetings in town halls, courthouses and statehouses across this country.” This results in situations that are antithetical to an informed democracy.
The CVPost strongly endorses the values of open government and a free flow of information, in line with its mission of contributing “to better informed and more engaged communities in the Chipppewa Valley.
(Home page cartoon contributed to Sunshine Week materials by Joel Pett, cartoonist for the Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader.