Sunshine Week, a journalist-created annual event to raise awareness about open government, will be held March 10–16, 2013. The initiative is being coordinated by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the American Society of News Editors.
A schedule of events, many of which will be in Washington, D.C., has been put up at the event’s website.
Sunshine Week is sponsored annually by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Corporate mass-media firm Bloomberg LP has kicked in a grant for 2013.
What is now Sunshine Week was started as Sunshine Sunday in 2002 by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. The group launched the event in response to efforts afoot in the Florida legislature to add several exemptions to the state’s public-records law. FSNE credits its initiative with leading to the defeat of around 300 exemptions proposed in the Sunshine State legislature.
Blog Law Blog can’t help but wonder if the Florida-born Sunshine Week is meant to correspond with Spring Break in Daytona Beach. The timing sure is peculiar. And, when you think about it, open-records laws and in-mouth margarita mixing can both lead to exposures of a type. Yikes. Well, here’s to hoping for more being revealed by governments than drunk college students this spring.
Beau Zimmer of WTSP television in Florida 
Sense of Personal Betrayal at Root of Real Housewives Star Suit Against Blog Commenter
Thursday, January 31st, 2013Hochstein, who is an ensemble case member of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Miami, says the defendant, Jessica Lederman, has been to Hochstein’s house. And that’s apparently what spurred her to sue.
“This person is an acquaintance we’ve invited in our home and who has smiled in our faces. She had no shame in saying these horrible things,” Hochstein told the Miami Herald. “The fact that she knows me and I’ve seen her in my home, well, it just sits the wrong way . I’m not going to go after every blogger and commenter out there. Trust me, I’ve been called way worse. I have thick skin as part of this whole show, but this really struck a chord.”
The legal claims appear to be intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation with a prayer for $15,000.
Hochstein says she didn’t file the lawsuit for publicity reasons. Instead, it’s personal.
“I didn’t want it to get out of hand and I’m all for freedom of speech, but when you know someone personally and act like you’re friendly with them and then go making an accusation like that, it’s a big deal. What have I done to her?”
More:
Miami Herald: #RHOM’s Lisa Hochstein speaks out on controversial blog commenter lawsuit
TMZ.com: ‘REAL HOUSEWIVES’ STAR Sues Internet Commenter Over Call Girl Remarks
Tags: Florida, Jessica Lederman, Lisa Hochstein, Miami, Real Housewives
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