American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE), ASNE releases ‘budget’ for Sunshine Week 2017, Staff report, Feb. 23, 2017. [Notes: ‘Budget’ is a term among news editors denoting events expected to become news stories. JIP Editor Andrew Kreig is a member of ASNE and is organizing a Sunshine Week event March 16 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The keynoter will be the 
congressionally appointed former Assassinations Record Review Board Chairman John R. Tunheim (shown in an official photo), now chief federal judge in Minnesota. He and other speakers will discuss the historic scheduled release in October by the National Archives of the final 3,600 secret documents about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. More details of the forum will be published here soon.]
Federal data is disappearing from websites. Concerns are growing about whistleblower protections. The public is faced with inconsistent access to information like police dashcam video. Attacks on the First Amendment continue.
This year, more than ever, ASNE and multiple media partners will use Sunshine Week, March 12-18, to hold government officials accountable for their transparency, or secrecy, around public records. For 
12 years, our Sunshine Week coverage has championed the public’s right to information and revealed threats to those rights. This year, we will extend that week of focus to coverage throughout 2017.
ASNE is partnering with The Associated Press, Associated Press Media Editors, Gannett, McClatchy, The Dallas Morning News and the Minneapolis Star Tribune on coverage available to all during Sunshine Week and thereafter. ASNE’s First Amendment Committee leaders Joyce Terhaar, executive editor of The Sacramento Bee, and Robyn Tomlin, managing editor of The Dallas Morning News, are spearheading this special reporting project.