Sunshine Week is March 13-19, a time when people celebrate, or should celebrate, access to public information and its meaning in a community.

This concept has always been essential to a well-functioning society, but it has even greater meaning now considering the stifling of information in Russia as it pertains to its invasion of Ukraine.

The American Society of News Editors, now known as the News Leaders Association, launched Sunshine Week in 2005 to promote open government.

Sunshine Week is an annual event, one that we hope continues year after year.

The public’s “right to know” has long been at the forefront of journalism, but it’s easy for people to forget this important concept, especially when they disagree with what’s being printed or broadcast.

Democracy means making informed decisions, and that’s furthered along through the dissemination of a variety of facts and opinions from different sources so people can formulate informed opinions themselves.

One of the tools journalists use is the Freedom of Information Act. They use FOIA to acquire information about what’s happening in their communities and hold officials accountable. They submit requests for information to various agencies to create a more thorough story and better inform its readers.

In other words, FOIA requests — and access to records in general — shed light on a topic when otherwise people would be in the dark.

Hence the moniker Sunshine Week.

Journalism must be kept free and independent, but at the same time, its practitioners must offer factual and nonbiased information to the public. People might differ in their opinions of the definition of so-called “fake news,” but by and large, journalists make good efforts to be impartial and tell their stories in an interesting — but non-sensational — way.

In other words, you don’t have to like it, but you need good journalism.

Because good journalism is so important to society, officials and the public should support it regardless of whether they like the outcome. If they are honest in their jobs, they should not be afraid of what journalists write and share with the public. If they are dishonest, journalists can change that.

It’s their duty, and it’s what open government is all about.

As the tagline for Sunshine Week says, “Open government is good government,” and we want to keep it that way.