Sunshine Week to Again Include Cartoon Contributions

By: E&P Staff Editorial cartoonists will once again be participating in the annual Sunshine Week, which runs March 16-22 for 2008.

Cartoons about topics such as government secrecy and First Amendment issues will be posted for use that week. Then the larger, print-ready versions will be removed -- leaving a gallery of smaller images so people can't use them for another purpose without the artists' permission, according to Nick Anderson, president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC).

Sunshine Week is a nonpartisan open-government initiative led by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Other participants include online and broadcast media, public officials, celebrities, civic groups, nonprofits, libraries, schools, religious leaders, etc. It's primarily funded by a challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Anderson, of the Houston Chronicle and Washington Post Writers Group, said in an e-mail: "This year, they're taking on a new challenge, which they're calling the Sunshine Campaign. It moves them out of the one-week frame, although they'll still mark Sunshine Week in March. They're trying to drive open government as a campaign issue, whether it's at the presidential level or in a local city council race. The goal is to get anyone (not just journalists) who's in front of a candidate to ask about access and freedom-of-information issues."

Cartoonists can send their Sunshine Week drawings to Anderson at nick.anderson@chron.com. The deadline is late February, "but of course, the earlier the better," said the AAEC president.

For more information about the campaign, click here.