When Elon University polled North Carolina residents in 2009, they found a disconnect:

Of those surveyed, 88 percent thought open government meetings and records kept government operations honest.

Yet 63 percent were not aware that state laws exist to allow public access to government records.

That's why the mission of the university's Sunshine Center is so important. Run by the North Carolina Open Government Coalition at Elon University, the center educates residents about their rights to government information, and helps people access official meetings and records.

This week, the center announced some great news:  it has built a $500,000 endowment.

Knight Foundation gave a $250,000 challenge grant  for the Sunshine Center’s endowment in 2007. Local organizations such as the Triangle Community Foundation and the North Carolina Press Foundation have raised enough to match the grant amount. Additional support came from Time Warner Cable, the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters and individual contributors.

Now, the Sunshine Center can continue to push government at all levels to be more transparent and facilitate access to public records. Their work helps fulfill the recommendations of “Informing Communities,” the report of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy.

The Sunshine Center also participates in meetings with other members of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and hosts Sunshine Week activities in North Carolina. Sunshine Week is an annual nationwide event run by the American Society of News Editors. The events provide information about freedom of information and encourage journalists, schools and civic groups to advocate for open government laws.

With political leaders pledging great transparency, do we still need Sunshine Week to promote open government?

Absolutely.

This year's Knight Open Government Survey, done by George Washington University's  National Security Archive,  found that only 13 of 90 surveyed federal agencies have made any concrete changes to their Freedom of Information practices even though the president directed them to do so a year ago.

The day after the survey story appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post and elsewhere, the White House chief of staff and the counsel to the president wrote a memo to the agency heads noting "more work remains" and asking them to "take action" to ensure "full implementation" of President Obama's Jan. 21 2009 memo.

Other highlights:

• This year's presidential statement marking Sunshine Week, citing the progress since last year.
• The Scripps Poll, showing that 70 percent of U.S. adults believe the federal government is secretive.
• Headlines from around the country marking the week.

Sunshine Week started in 2005 as a project of the American Society of News Editors along with dozens of other groups, with funding from Knight Foundation. The foundation later endowed the annual event, which promotes the importance of open government and freedom of information.

— By Eric Newton, Knight Foundation Vice President

This year’s Sunshine Week contest, which will be announced March 14-20, will honor local heroes of open government.

The efforts of these local heroes, whose work has made their communities a better place to live, will be recognized among media organizations and other groups throughout the nation.

Since 2005, Sunshine Week has been held annually to discuss the importance of open government and freedom of information.

The American Society of News Editors will conduct a contest to identify the top three Local Heroes of 2010.

For those interested in nominating a local hero, please fill out a nomination form. The deadline is Feb. 26.

-- Marly Falcon, Knight Foundation contributing blogger

Lawyers for the Electronic Frontier Foundation celebrate the receipt of two boxes full of government documents. Courtesy of hughelectronic on Flickr.

Last summer, the National Freedom of Information Coalition conducted an online survey to test whether the economic crisis and changes in the media industry had affected efforts to push for more open government. The results were conclusive: 60 percent of the respondents said that traditional media support for open government lawsuits in their states had fallen dramatically. Eighty-five percent of the respondents said they expected these lawsuits to become even rarer in the next three years.

Meanwhile, more than half of the respondents to a follow-up study said that open government violations had gone up in the past few years. And the NFOIC found that many media organizations were too under-resourced to even get their lawyers to contact government officials in protest.

Today, Knight Foundation announced a $2 million grant to the NFOIC to create the Knight FOI Fund:

The Knight FOI Fund will provide up-front costs such as court costs, filing and deposition fees, if attorneys are willing to take on a pro-bono basis cases that otherwise would go unfiled.

“Media companies have for generations taken on the lion’s share of the legal work surrounding freedom of information,” said Eric Newton, Knight Foundation Vice President for Journalism Programs. “But as media economics restructure, new approaches are needed. The National Freedom of Information Coalition is in a position to seed and lead new approaches.”

The Knight FOI Fund will be one of several NFOIC initiatives to address the fall-off in open government litigation, including a round of challenge grants to raise more local money for state Freedom of Information coalitions and a new website to help support the state FOI movement. You can read more about the Knight grant in our press release, and learn more about the NFOIC at the organization's website.

When the Berlin Wall fell, optimists happily predicted “the end of history.” The post-Cold War world would see unparalleled freedom, with a wave of media development unrivaled in human history. Well, it didn’t happen that way. The world remains an erratic, unsure place, by both press freedom and media development measures. 2009 sometimes looks suspiciously like 1989.

 The world needs new media development leaders. Knight Foundation’s biggest international grantee, the International Center for Journalists, is becoming just that. ICFJ’s president, Joyce Barnathan, is the chair of the Global Forum for Media Development, with 500 members in 100 countries.

ICFJ runs the Knight Journalism Fellows Program. Its tightly target approach is attracting many new partners. Gates Foundation funds Knight fellows, $4 million so far. Other funders support $3 million in Knight fellows.

What makes the Knight Fellows so important? They do more than just train journalists. They accomplish specific things: producing high-impact stories, or new investigative reporting organizations, or new journalism schools or new freedom of information centers.

How does ICFJ know where to work? An international group of advisors identifies the world’s best media projects, ones that will create lasting, visible change, and matches fellows from anywhere in the world to those specific opportunities.

A little money can go a long way. $200,000 for a training fellow for one year in Kenya equaled $7.5 million in new government spending on health care because the stories done moved the community to action. In Indonesia, great reporting helped stop the dumping of medical waste. In Uganda, it saved lives with better vaccinations, in Bangladesh, it helped save more lives with cleaner water.

Why care about all this outside America? Because the modern world is turning into one very big city. Bad health reporting on one side of the planet can lead to a killer flu coming right into this room. Journalism in a connected world matters. Here’s the press release announcing $6 million over three years to extend the Knight International Journalism Fellows. And here’s where you can suggest a project or apply for a fellowship.

-- Eric Newton is the vice president of the journalism program at Knight Foundation.

From Marly Falcon, Knight Foundation contributing blogger:

The World Press Freedom Committee points out that only 21 percent of the world’s people live in countries with a fully free press.

Cuba is on the list of countries without a free press. The Cuban government has restrained press freedom, the right to free expression of ideas and citizens’ access to information without government censorship, according to the Inter American Press Association’s report from the Resolution of the 65th General Assembly.

There have been at least 102 cases of repression against independent journalists reported throughout the country since April.  The number of journalists in Cuban jails increased to 27 with sentences ranging from one to 28 years. Several of the imprisoned journalists are suffering from serious health problems, but the government refuses to allow a special release for those prisoners.

There is currently a growing movement of bloggers going against state control on information and use of the Internet, which is still restricted for the Cuban people.

About 30 personal blogs with information about the situation in Cuba are being produced. However, almost none can be viewed from Cuba because of increased government surveillance and the blocking of those pages. The content is updated by collaborators in the United States, Latin America, and Europe.

It’s been reported that the government is attacking independent journalists and bloggers. On Nov. 6, police captured and beat blogger Yoani Sanchez and other independent bloggers in the street while they were trying to attend a peaceful demonstration in Havana.

The IAPA, according to the General Assembly report, demands the unconditional release of jailed journalists and government respect for the work of independent journalists.

It demands the suspension of repression against independent bloggers.

It condemns the intensification of government control of the Internet and the deliberate blocking of Web sites that disseminate information and ideas that do not conform to the line of the government media.

It condemns the recent detention and violent beating by officers of Yoani Sanchez and a group of independent bloggers.

Let it be known that these occurrences are not just happening in Cuba. Impunity is a worldwide issue. Click here to learn more.

From Eric Newton, VP/Journalism, Knight Foundation:

CPJ's Global Campaign Against Impunity -- the legal impunity too often enjoyed by those who would murder journalists -- has produced a bright red infographic detailing the cases of 758 journalists killed since 1992.  The graphic leads a new section of the CPJ web site launched this week. Here's how you can get involved in the Knight Foundation-underwritten Campaign Against Impunity.

The CPJ campaign follows up on the Impunity Project launched in 1995 by the InterAmerican Press Association.  In addition to investigating the cases of  journalists murdered in the Americas, the project reached out to government leaders to better investigate the cases. A public advertising campaign in print and online media included more than 400 news organizations. The decreases in the impunity rate have reached as high as 50 percent.

From Eric Newton, VP/Journalism, Knight Foundation:

Big news day: The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy has released its report. National coverage from the AP, Washington Post and many others.  Friday's launch featured pledges from the leaders of the Federal Communication Commission and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as well as the nation's chief technology officer, to use the report to advance universal broadband access, public media innovation and open government. CPB announced its committment to innovation in a partnership with Knight Foundation on National Public Radio's  Argo Project, to bring online reporting to a dozen cities. In all, Knight Foundation's new grants advancing the report amounted to more than seven million dollars, including more than a dozen in public libraries in places such as Charlotte and Tallahassee, and new nonprofit reporting projects like the Texas Tribune.

Aspen Institute is hosting a forum to discuss the commission report here. The grassroots group Free Press wants to push ahead with the recommendations.  New America Foundation is launching new media policy fellowships to track and critique responses to the report.  Interesting also that Google's new project (to spend millions on top ideas that people vote for), contain three that are totally in line with the Knight Commission's recommendations.  You can vote for news, data and open government here.

If every American went to the Newseum in Washington, D.C., would the First Amendment be in better shape?

Every year, the First Amendment Center issues a State of the First Amendment report based on telephone interviews. In 2008, 40 percent of respondents—the greatest percentage thus far—were not able to identify one of First Amendment freedoms.

Visitors to the Newseum respond to similar kinds of questions on kiosks as they exit the First Amendment Gallery. More of the Newseum visitors, by that poll, appreciate the First Amendment than do members of the general public, by the State of the First Amendment survey.

Just 12 percent of Newseum visitors say the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees, but 20 percent of the public says the same. Similarly, 39 percent of the public and 18 percent of Newseum visitors say the American press has too much freedom.

Here are some other examples:

It’s not a scientific comparison, but it appears people at the Newseum have the kinds of attitudes about the First Amendment that its supports would love to see in the general public surveys. Why? It is because the Newseum, which has the world’s largest copy of the First Amendment on its facade, simply attracts freedom-lovers? Or is there something special they learn inside? Or both?

The issue of First Amendment education has been in the news for years, since a major national study showed more than 75 percent of high school students did not know about or care about all of these fundamental freedoms.

Check out these educational programs focusing on the First Amendment and Constitution Day.

Notes from the war between cyber dissidents and their repressive governments…

On June 16th, the State Department quietly asked twitter not to undergo a scheduled maintenance because the texting service had become a main medium for news about Iranian election protests. Since then, the Iranian government has shut down cell phone connections and SMS texting. Protesters have switched to word of mouth and personal cameras.

Over 100 journalists from around the world have been petitioning for the release of Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari, who has been in an Tehran prison since June 21st.

In North Korea, American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee are still being held, though not at a work camp, as the government demands an apology. Their crime? Entering the country without permission to do stories for Current TV, Al Gore’s TV network/web site focused on video “pods” aimed at young people. For more on Laura, Euna, and other women journalists who have been detained abroad, visit the International Women’s Media Foundation.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Iran has replaced China as the world’s top jailer of journalists, though China has been detaining TV crews and cutting Internet connections in Xinjiang, where there are riots over the treatment of the Muslim minority.

The World Press Freedom Committee points out that only 21 percent of the world’s people live in countries with a fully free press. However, the remaining nations hold a majority in every intergovernmental organization where press freedom issues are considered.

The preceding graphs are from the Committee to Protect Journalists' 2008 prison census: Online and in jail, released December 4, 2008.