The Sunshine Award recognizes the best political cartoon, op-ed/editorial, and article on open government for Sunshine Week. Sunshine Week is a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. An award will be granted for each of the three categories. There is no submission fee, and any article that is posted to the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors website (www.fsne.org) is automatically entered in the contest.

2009
The 2009 awards were judged by Tom O'Hara, former managing editor of the Palm Beach Post and The Cleveland Plain-Dealer. Tom serves on the board of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and teaches in the communications program at Ohio State University. The Sunshine Awards were presented at the annual Florida Press Association and Florida Society of Newspaper Editors awards luncheon on Friday, July 10 at the Breakers hotel in West Palm Beach.

• Best Column - Jane Healy, Orlando Sentinel
• Best Editorial - Florida Today
• Best Political Cartoon - Rob Smith, Jr.

2008
The Sunshine awards were judged by Professor Charles Davis, professor of journalism at the University of Missouri/Columbia, and executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition. The Sunshine Awards were presented at the annual Florida Press Association and Florida Society of Newspaper Editors awards luncheon on Friday, June 6 at the Hilton in the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista.

The 2008 Sunshine Award winners are:

• Best Column -- Matt Reed, Florida Today
• Best Editorial -- The Ledger
• Best Political Cartoon -- Ed Hall, The St. Augustine Record