Sunshine Review:Writing articles about transparency legislation
From Sunshine Review
Open records are one of the most powerful political tools at a citizen's disposal. It's the most direct tool for being a citizen watchdog over the government. On Sunshine Review, you can write articles to allow more citizens to understand how and why they should be taking steps to understand Freedom of Information laws, and promote the expansion or preservation of these laws. Here is how you can help:
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Finding the right content
All fifty states have their own state FOIA (sunshine) laws. Typically, you will find a website with information about the open records law, which public entities are open to inquiry and which documents are as well. When looking up this information, make sure to also note the contact information for submitting a FOIA request.
It is always a good idea to include a link in your article to these laws as they tend to be "moving targets", partly because of court cases interpreting the laws.
- KEEP posting these laws even if they are already available at a statewide level. Transparency law exists on a county, township, city wide, school district level as well. Help citizens get involved and post your law no matter how "local" the level.
Other useful links to readers are links to
- FOIA letter generator
- WikiFOIA
- Open Meeting Laws by Ann Taylor
- Sources for the PBS special "Secret Government
- Citizen Access Project
- Freedom of Information Center at the Missouri School of Journalism
- Open Government Guide from the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press
Making Open Records laws user friendly
Most Open Records laws are written in 'legalese,' which in turn makes it unreadable to all but those with a law degree. It is helpful to dig into that language, and provide 'translations' in your articles here in layman's terms.
Some suggested sections to break the law into:
- Basic Procedures
- Public Records
- Electronic media definitions
- Government Entities
- The Budget
- Open Meetings
- Penalties
- Contact info
- Historical revisions
- General comments
What's new?
There has been a recent movement in many state legislatures to restrict FOIA by placing severe restrictions on it. Keep updating your pages! If the Sunshine Review catches them before you do, I'd suggesting adding your states transparency law page to your watch list. This will allow you to see updates as the community adds to it.
- Add to your watch list by clicking on the watch button in the top right panel.
Formating your page
If you are at loss for how to write in "wiki" please check out our new page and editing articles.
Also remember to categorize your page and to cite your sources.
