It’s Sunshine Week in Indiana and across the nation.  ICOG and other access organizations are marking the observance with events devoted to talking about and raising awareness of the need for open doors and records in a democratic society.

ICOG board member Tony Fargo, an associate professor of journalism at Indiana University, is a featured speaker at a Sunshine Week event at Ball State University. Fargo joins Bill Nichols, managing editor of Politico, for a presentation titled “Change we can see into? Government secrecy from the White House to the Statehouse” at 7:30 p.m. on March 16. The lecture in room 125 of the David Letterman Communication and Media building is free and open to the public.

While Nichols will focus on federal access issues, Fargo will discuss how sunshine laws affect citizens at the state level as well, including an assessment of how Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration fares when it comes to being open with the public.

In other Sunshine Week news:

  • Public opinion about government secrecy has leveled off in 2009, even though 70 percent of adults still think government is too secretive, according to a new survey by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University. You can read the full report online at www.sunshineweek.org.
  • A survey of state government Web sites has found increasing amounts of public information online, but with notable exceptions of important government records. That report, too, can be read at www.sunshineweek.org.