Who next for FOI?
I'm sorry that the blog wasn't in operation for the important government a fortnight ago that ministers have abandoned their planned restrictions on freedom of information.
It's almost exactly a year since the government said it was 'minded' to constrain FOI. Under pressure it then held a formal consultation on its specific plans and later was pushed into further delays with a broader consultative exercise on whether change was needed at all. Now it has finally concluded that FOI doesn't need to be curtailed. Why?
I think the key factors are firstly the campaign against the changes led by the journalism trade paper Press Gazette, the Society of Editors and the Campaign for Freedom of Information; secondly Gordon Brown's proclamation of a different style of government; and thirdly the failed attempt by David Maclean to exempt MPs from FOI which created so much fuss that any restriction on FOI became politically much harder to implement.
Gordon Brown also announced a new on which bodies FOI should now be extended to cover (a step that was originally planned for the first year of FOI in 2005).
I wonder if Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, will respond. One of my colleagues attended a he gave last week, and tells me that perhaps surprisingly for someone who was within the innermost circles of state secrecy, Sir Richard said he was 'not averse' to freedom of information.
His reason was that it had helped to define more clearly where secrecy was required and thus avoid unnecessary secrecy 'debasing' what needed to be genuinely secret. So I don't think Sir Richard will be suggesting MI6 as a body performing a public function to which FOI should be extended.
Meanwhile those of you who like making FOI requests to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ may be interested to know that the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas the notion of FOI applying to ITV and Sky as well as the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and Channel 4. However, this is rather a theoretical possibility. It doesn't seem to me very likely that private companies of this kind will be made subject to FOI, even if they're not quite as demanding of secrecy as MI6.
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Given how the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ is so keen to utilise FOI - even going so far as to appoint yourself as a special rapporteur on the subject - I would be very interested in hearing your views about the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's attempt to block publication of its internal report into Middle-East journalism, which was requested under the FOI and later denied.
When this report is eventually made public, it will be fascinating to see just what exactly the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ is trying to hide from the British public who pay its wages.
Jamie -
You will see that I have covered the Balen report on various earlier postings on this blog.
is that an echo of orwells laughter i hear?
when are we (the people)going to wake up and realise we are controlled and manipulated by the authorities.The question of imformation availability should be available to all citizens who desire to see how their goverments spend our tax money.The powers to be seem only to willing to spend and spend and throw our money away.It is time we are allowed to now what these people are doing.