This week we celebrate Sunshine Week, an annual, weeklong event intended to throw light on open-government laws and the need to bolster those laws.

In keeping with the spirit of Sunshine Week, we chose to highlight three bills pending in the North Carolina General Assembly.

One of these bills would weaken the public’s ability to gain access to information about local governments.

The other two bills would strengthen the North Carolina Public Records Law or Open Meetings Law. In fact, the bills would sharpen these laws’ teeth considerably.

First, the bad news.

On March 9, certain representatives filed House Bill 307. This local bill would permit Wake and Cabarrus counties and the towns of Cary, Clayton, Wendell and Zebulon to bypass newspapers and provide legal notices electronically.

According to the bill, these notices could be published on the local governments’ websites “or by any other means” – whatever that entails.

We believe this bill could push the Legislature down a slippery slope toward permitting local governments to confine public notices to information sources they control.

Such a move could lead to the equivalent of a state-sponsored news service – one that would let local governments tell taxpayers what they feel they need to know.

Lawmakers should keep in mind the fact that not everyone has home Internet access, including many elderly and low-income people. These people would be adversely affected by this bill.

This bill is extremely dangerous to our democracy, and it should be defeated.

One of the co-sponsors of House Bill 307 is Rep. Paul “Skip” Stam, R-Wake, House majority leader.

If you value democracy and freedom of the press, and don’t trust your government to keep you informed, call Stam at 919-733-2962. Ask Stam to work against this awful bill.

You might consider calling Beaufort County’s representative, Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, at 919-733-5906. Ask Cook to stand up for existing public-notice law by standing against this bill.

Now, the good news.

On Feb. 16, a host of senators filed Senate Bill 67. This bill, called the Sunshine Amendment, would enshrine the right to access public records and meetings in the North Carolina Constitution.

If this measure is approved by the House and Senate, voters statewide will have a chance to vote on the proposed constitutional amendment in the Nov. 6, 2012 general election.

The right to know should be preserved in the N.C. Constitution, and this bill is a great idea.