Sunshine Week is March 15-21.

By Carlos A. Rodriguez, Courtesty of the Brownsville Herald

Recent news about former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s decision to use her personal email account exclusively for government business shows the ongoing battle over the public’s right to know what our officials are doing, and those officials’ constant efforts to hide their actions from the light of public scrutiny.

That is why we welcome the annual Sunshine Week, which begins today. The American Society of Newspaper Editors began the week 10 years ago, with help from a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, to highlight the importance of keeping our government’s activities and information open to the public. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press helps organize the week, and Bloomberg, Gridiron Club and others also provide support.

Freedom Week is held each year to coincide with the March 16 birthday of James Madison, the Father of our Constitution and co-author of the Federalist Papers, which promoted the open-government ideals of our governing document.

Despite the clear intent of Madison and other U.S. founders, the struggle to keep government accountable to the people continues. Clinton’s efforts to bypass public forums is only the latest and most prominent attempt to escape the intent, if not the letter of our open-government laws.

It’s hardly better at the state and local level. Texas has some of the strongest open government laws in the country, and that’s a good thing. Unfortunately, most of those laws have no teeth and enforcement is weak, giving officials relative impunity to defy them.

The Texas Legislature, which currently is in session, frequently sees proposed legislation that would close off public access to public records and proceedings. And despite the constant battle against corruption, some bills actually seek to make it easier for criminals to get elected by sealing or expunging criminal records. Some bills would enable them to continue their crimes in office, by eliminating current mandates that governmental bodies’ bidding and budgeting processes be published in their local newspapers of record.

Fortunately, the Texas Press Association, Texas Association of Broadcasters and other groups monitor such bills, and actively support those that keep government open while opposing those that would hurt the public’s access to information about their government and taxes.

We applaud such efforts, and pray for the day that public officials, and the voters who elect them, show higher regard for the value of open government.