Media Law - The Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Freedom of Information Act 2000

The Freedom of Information Act came in to effect in 2005, and since then it has allowed any member of the public to demand certain information from public organisations. This is 'information which has been recorded in any form' and would therefore apply to minutes taken in a meeting, documents filed away in a cabinet and electronically stored data.

The Act can make a journalists' job infinitely easier if it is used correctly. Recent stories such as the MP expenses scandal would not have been possible without the Act in place, and without the evidence it provided the accusations would have purely been defamation. In the case of the scandal, the expense reports were leaked internally before they could be given to Heather Brooke, the journalist making the enquiries.

The Act could be used to obtain anonymous information (not relating to any named individual) about the frequency of sick days within a organisation, the type of injuries sustained in A&E visits or the amount of compensation a school might have to pay to injured pupils.

Public authorities covered by the FOI Act:

• national government departments and ministries e.g. Home Office, Prime Minister's Office
• House of Commons, House of Lords
• the armed forces
• local government authorities included councils, police, fire service
• park authorities
• state unis, colleges, schools
• the NHS
• advisory councils e.g. Ofcom

Procedure for making a request:

• Find out who the F.I officer is in the organisation, ask to speak to them.
• Frame the request in bureaucratic language
• Ask if the organisation keeps the type of information you want
• Ask if you can see it
• Don't accept a flat out refusal; rephrase the request or break it down into a smaller one so they can't immediately deny you on cost grounds
• If the request is denied an appeal could always be made.

The main problem with the Act is the number of exemptions which apply to it, which can be twisted and abused to obstruct the release of useful information. Extended dealing with bureaucrats also seems like an unpleasant drawback.





The main reasons for a denied request:

• National secrecy, i.e. you can't phone up MI6 and ask which train their staff take to work
• Cost of finding and collating data - if the cost (in terms of staff hours) of meeting the request exceeds more than £600 (or £450 for smaller council organisations.) Of course, they could be grossly overestimating how much the time of their staff is worth when denying you on this count.
• the organisation doesn't have the information that you have specifically requested (you have to frame the request in a certain way or they can feign ignorance and not help you, almost like a search engine)
• The information you request would breach someone's confidentiality (you can't phone the doctor that you heard Cheryl Cole goes to and ask for her medical records to see if there's anything gross and embarrassing lurking there)

The Information Commissioner's office in London is the advisory body on the FOI Act and, if receiving and granting an appeal against an obstruction such as the ones above (but usually on cost grounds), can encourage an organisation to release the relevant documents.

The public interest test is also applied when an organisation is asked to give information where a qualified exemption may apply; a loophole in the Act is that it does not specify how much time they have to do this test, and so the normal 20 day response limit could be dragged out for months.

A journalist must remember that information garnered and then published through use of the Act enjoys no protection of privilege, and will find themselves in an awkward position if somebody sues for libel. The only real defence here is that the information published is almost definitely true (justification) as it has been recorded by an official government body.