Sunshine Week 2024

The goal of Sunshine Week — March 10-16 this year with related events occurring throughout the month — is to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public’s right to know. Here’s a look at how NEFAC celebrated the occasion and defended your right to know about government.

COMMENTARY

NEFAC Executive Director Justin Silverman recently joined Talking Politics host Adam Reilly and Act on Mass Executive Director Erin Leahy to discuss Sunshine Week in Massachusetts (above). Silverman addressed the need for stronger public record laws and required hybrid access to government meetings. Here is a sampling of where our Sunshine Week commentary also appeared:

• Sunshine Week Another Reminder to Strengthen Transparency in Government | Bangor Daily News
• Hybrid Public Meetings are a Pandemic Innovation Worth Keeping | The Boston Globe
• A Look Into Public Records Law: What Makes A Document Public? | Sandwich Enterprise
• New Lawsuit Against BPD, BRIC Shows a Trend in Lack of Transparency | Daily Free Press
• New Hampshire Report: Sunshine Week | The Boston Globe

OP/ED

Silverman wrote an op/ed that is available to be published by all newsrooms and other FOI advocates. The op/ed focuses on how government transparency is a cause personal to all New Englanders and appeared in publications throughout the region and beyond.

VTDigger | Rhode Island Monthly | Caledonian Record | New Hampshire Bulletin | Greenfield Recorder | Eagle-Tribune | Athol Daily Times | Cleburne Times-Review | Weatherford Democrat | Salem News | Cullman Times | The Bedford Citizen | Daily Hampshire Gazette | Derry News | Gloucester Times | Vermont Community Newspaper Group (Stowe Reporter, The Other Paper, The Citizen, Shelburne News) | The Hull Times | Addison Independent

PROGRAMS AND PRESENTATIONS

Keeping the Light On and Holding Government Accountable in New Hampshire
March 11 | 5:30 p.m. ET | New Hampshire Institute of Politics

Featured Speakers

Annmarie Timmins (moderator) | New Hampshire Bulletin
Gilles Bissonnette | ACLU of New Hampshire
Hon. N. William Delker | N.H. Superior Court Justice
Emily Gray Rice | City of Manchester City Solicitor
Gregory V. Sullivan | Malloy & Sullivan and Board Member of Loeb School and NEFAC

Media Responsibility in an Age of Disinformation
March 12 | World Boston

NEFAC’s Maggie Mulvihill presented to a delegation of Indo-Pacific diplomats as part of the Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists. Mulivhill, a journalist, attorney and professor at Boston University spoke to representatives from Fiji, India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, China, and Vietnam.

New Hampshire Liberty Forum
March 15 | Nashua, New Hampshire

NEFAC President Gregory V. Sullivan was a featured speaker at the annual Liberty Forum conference hosted by the Free State Project. Sullivan, who also serves as counsel for the Union Leader, discussed transparency in the Granite State and addressed how the Right to Know Law could be improved.

How Public Records Shed Light on State and Local Government in Rhode Island
March 16 | 10:30 a.m. ET | William Hall Library

Featured Speakers

Wheeler Cowperthwaite | Providence Journal
Colleen Cronin | ecoRI News
Edward Fitzpatrick (moderator) | NEFAC, The Boston Globe
Eli Sherman | WPRI-Providence