March 15 - 21 is Sunshine Week, an annual event that commemorates the public's right to keep tabs on local, state and federal government. By coincidence, it was also a week in which secret House meetings were reported in the media. Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell asked that those meetings now be opened to the press and the public.
Deobrah Fisher is the executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, a group dedicated to preserving access to public records and government meetings. On Friday, March 21, she spoke with WUOT All Things Considered host Brandon Hollingsworth. They talked about how Tennessee's sunshine laws compare to those in other states, the potential roadblocks to public information, and what you can do to maintain a voice in local and state government activity.