Government secrecy has become so pervasive and overgrown that journalists last week used newspapers, TV, and radio to focus public attention on the problem and promote open government as part of the first-ever national Sunshine Week. Over 1,000 stories ran in newspapers across this country, including a week-long series of editorials and op-eds in the USA Today, a wide-ranging series of stories in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on how local citizens use open records laws to make their communities safer and many stories on how the public uses public records to become involved in local land-use and other community decisions. The Journal-Constitution ran stories analyzing local governments’ response to an average citizen’s request for public records, the federal government’s problems putting safety ahead of parochial secrecy and political cartoons on the topic. And a poll commissioned for Sunshine Week found that 7 of 10 Americans are concerned about excessive government secrecy and support for open government is as high today as it was before 9/11. In addition, the University of Florida donated print advertising created to highlight how laws that guarantee the public ability to examine government records help citizens make informed decisions. This effort represents a coup of sorts, as freedom-of-information issues rarely find their way into news stories. Ironically, journalists rely heavily on freedom-of-information laws, such as the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), to prepare significant news stories, but rarely do they focus stories on the laws themselves. That, however, is changing. Following up on a speech last year in which Associated Press (AP) President Tom Curley decried excessive government secrecy today, the AP has directed its organization to cover freedom-of-information issues much more. In addition, Cox News has created a news beat on secrecy, and other newspapers are paying greater attention. Whether this will translate into greater public pressure to strengthen open government remains to be seen. The major national daily newspapers did not participate in Sunshine Week this year, although the success of the effort this year makes it harder for them to ignore the story next year. For its part, the nation’s most diverse open government coalition, OpenTheGovernment.org (co-chaired by OMB Watch), is running banner advertising which can be seen at the National Journal website.