Sunshine Week and Project Sunshine

The Review-journal is participating in Sunshine Week, March 11-17, a national initiative to promote the importance of open government and freedom of information. Holding those in power to account is at the heart of the free press in America. Participants in Sunshine Week include news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public’s right to know.

Additionally, the newspaper is using Sunshine Week to launch Project Sunshine, a Review-journal initiative to spotlight government entities that attempt to keep public records secret and prevent taxpayers from learning about potential inefficiency, waste, abuse, and misconduct. Look for Project Sunshine stories throughout 2018 and beyond.

Learn more at sunshineweek.rcfp.org.

of cases in which the government said it found records but held back some or all of the material.

Administration releases figures

The Trump administration, in a new report last week, noted that it received a record number of information requests last year. It said many agencies reduced their backlogs of overdue requests.

The administration also said it was directing federal agencies to improve the number of requests they process and do some more quickly.

Performance under the records law by the Trump administration has been a source of curiosity.

But Trump is personally more accessible to reporters asking questions than President Barack Obama, and he released as many details about his medical records as previous presidents.

The Freedom of Information Act figures, released Friday, cover the actions of 116 departments and agencies during fiscal 2017, which ended Sept. 30. The highest number of requests went to the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Defense, Health and Human Services, and Agriculture, along with the National Archives and Records Administration and Veterans Administration.

Under the records law, citizens and foreigners can compel the U.S. government to turn over copies of federal records for no or little cost.

Anyone who seeks information through the law is generally supposed to get it unless disclosure would hurt national security, violate personal privacy, or expose business secrets or confidential decision-making in certain areas.