March 10-16 is Sunshine Week that is celebrated by newspapers across the United States.

Sunshine Week is sponsored each year by the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

While the Alabama Press Association (APA) is working with other groups in Alabama to push for a rewrite of our open records law, there is still support we can show to understanding the importance of this week.

This year, the ASNE, The Associated Press and Associated Press Media Editors are, once again, showcasing some of the challenges traditional journalism is facing across the country.

In Washington D.C., the Associated Press (AP) reported the country is at an all-time low citing that the government censored and withheld federal records sought by citizens, journalists and others more regularly last year than at any point in the past decade.

The calculations cover eight months under President Donald Trump.

“People who asked for records under the Freedom of Information Act received censored files or nothing in 78 percent of 823,222 requests, a record over the past decade. When it provided no records, the government said it could find no information related to the request in a little over half those cases. It turned over everything requested in roughly one of every five FOIA requests,” according to the AP analysis.

The Freedom of Information Act figures, released Friday, cover the actions of 116 departments and agencies during the 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.

The administration released its figures ahead of Sunshine Week, when news organizations promote open government and freedom of information.

Another problem facing journalists in the digital world is social media and political campaigns.

Nicholas Riccardi from AP writes that “The main events in a political campaign used to happen in the open: a debate, the release of a major TV ad or a public event where candidates tried to earn a spot on the evening news or the next day’s front page,” according to Riccardi. “That was before the explosion of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as political platforms. Now some of a campaign’s most pivotal efforts happen in the often-murky world of social media, where ads can be targeted to ever-narrower slices of the electorate and run continuously with no disclosure of who is paying for them. Reporters cannot easily discern what voters are seeing, and hoaxes and forgeries spread instantaneously. Journalists trying to hold candidates accountable have a hard time keeping up.”

On the local level, The Selma Times-Journal is still pursuing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) we filed with Selma City for financial documents.

Transparency is key to keeping all public figures accountable. That is the main part of our job.

We celebrate Sunshine Week in the never ending strive for seeking the truth in all aspects of our community.