As Sunshine Week 2025 unfolds from March 16-22, the National Press Foundation joins with journalism organizations, libraries, civic organizations and others to call attention to the critical role of public records and open government in a functioning democracy. “Sunshine laws” give citizens access to government processes by making meetings, records, votes and other official actions available for public observation or inspection. The public has a right to know what their governments are doing.
“Every week should be Sunshine Week, but it’s vital to highlight the urgent need for government transparency – especially at a time when press freedoms are eroding and misinformation and disinformation are on the rise,” said Terence Samuel, Chair of the NPF Board of Directors. “Open government and public access to records are not just principles; they are essential to the survival of the American experiment in self-governance and the future of any functioning democracy.”
This marks the 20th Sunshine Week and comes at a time when debates over public records laws, digital transparency, and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) are at the forefront of national and local discussions. The New York Times reported that more than 8,000 web pages across government websites were taken down in late January and early February. Private entities from the Harvard Law School Innovation Lab to news organizations like The 19th* moved swiftly to preserve government data and make it available for researchers, scholars, journalists and the public at large.
Train yourself on FOIA requests, holding the government accountable
Tips on accessing and applying government data applies across beats and is infused in NPF trainings throughout the year. These resources can be accessed without cost at nationalpress.org:
- This year NPF Covering Workplace Mental Health fellows learned how to request data, utilization rates and stories from Employee Assistance Programs to improve their health or business reporting.
- At the 2023 Crime Coverage Summit 2023: Beyond ‘If It Bleeds, It Leads’ journalists learned how the Jail Data Initiative works to aggregate nationwide jail data and give a more accurate demographic picture than what’s available from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
- NPR investigative producer Huo Jingnan shared with Widening the Pipeline fellows strategies about starting a data-driven project gleaned from her work on a story about HUD selling flood-prone homes to often unsuspecting buyers.
- “If you don’t cover campaign finance, you don’t fully cover politics,” Patrick Svitek, Texas Tribune political correspondent told NPF’s 2022 Statehouse Reporting Fellows. Svitek outlined campaign finance information that can be found outside the FEC.
NPF’s resources include presentations on filing a FOIA request and mining records through PACER:
What to do for Sunshine Week 2025
There are a wide range of in-person and virtual Sunshine Week events happening across the country to help build skills, enforce the public’s right to know, and promote transparency.
“NPF is proud to stand with dozens of other press groups during Sunshine Week, but this is not just an observance for journalists – it’s for all Americans,” NPF President Anne Godlasky said. “Secrecy enables powerful people and institutions down a path of corruption and abuse, which is why government transparency and the preservation of open records is critical to democracy.”
Sunshine Week is funded in part through an endowment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as well as by the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. Sunshine Week toolkits and resources are available at sunshineweek.org.
