Simultaneously held with Fix a Leak Week, Sunshine Week is less about tools and more about transparency.

Held March 14-20 this year, Sunshine Week was launched in 2002 by Florida Society of Newspaper Editors as a response to efforts by some Florida legislators to create various new exemptions to the state’s public-records law. FSNE estimates that some 300 exemptions to open-government laws were defeated in the legislative sessions that followed its three Sunshine Sundays, thanks to the increased public and legislative awareness that resulted from the Sunshine Sunday reports and commentary.

As a national initiative to highlight transparency and freedom of information, Sunshine Week also seeks to encourage people to play an active role in their government at all levels, and to provide them with access to information that makes their lives better and strengthens their communities.

Although spearheaded by journalists, Sunshine Week participants usually include civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public’s right to know.