11 April 2012
Some recent blog posts of interest to supporters of saveFOI:
Alistair Sloan asks Should Scotland Care about the Freedom of Information Act 2000?
Jonny Medland on Forget the NHS Risk Register. Focus on what it means for the future of the public right to know
Lawrence Serewizc In Defence of Frivolous Requests
Alex Marsh on Policy, Information and Transparency
6 April 2012
The Guardian ran a poll asking “Is the Freedom of Information Act paralysing government?” The result: 7.6% of respondents said “yes”, 92.4% said “no” http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/poll/2012/apr/06/is-freedom-of-information-act-paralysing-government
4 April 2012
In a talk given to a “Solicitors in Local Government” annual weekend school by Deputy Information Commissioner Graham Smith was reported to have “warned that local government’s concerns about freedom of information are not being heard by the Commons Justice Committee as it scrutinises the Freedom of Information Act. ‘There’s no strong voice from local government in this process before the justice committee.'” http://www.ukauthority.com/NewsArticle/tabid/64/Default.aspx?id=3603
22 March 2012
saveFOI got some national media attention, in a superb article in the Telegraph by Cal Flyn and Conrad Quilty Harper. There’s a mention for co-founder Paul Gibbons, aka @FOIManUk, and check out the fantastic graph! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9149322/What-price-freedom-of-information.html
21 March 2012
A fantastic guest post on FOIMan’s blog from an anonymous civil servant on his or her experiences of how FOI is viewed within a government department http://www.foiman.com/archives/550
16 March 2012 Local authority councillor, and head of advocacy at Index on Censorship, Mike Harris has written an excellent article for the Guardian entitled “Why are councils spinning against freedom of information?” http://www.guardian.co.uk/local-government-network/2012/mar/16/why-councils-spinning-freedom-information
15 March 2012
Chair of Public Accounts Committee says private firms should be subject to FOI when they companies are working for the public sector http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=19183
14 March 2012
Westminster Hall debate on FOI and private emails, secured by Lisa Nandy MP http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201212/cmhansrd/cm120314/halltext/120314h0002.htm#12031466000004
14 March 2012
The Justice Committee continues its post-legislative scrutiny of FOI with crucial evidence session from the Information Commissioner Christopher Graham and his deputy Graham Smith http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=10518
13 March 2012
Claire Miller, of Media Wales, has a good FOI piece which mentions the saveFOI campaign http://clairemiller.net/blog/2012/03/foi-is-better-than-tea-and-biscuits/
7 March 2012
UCL’s Constitution Unit has an interesting blog post looking at some of the evidence submissions to the Justice Committee http://constitution-unit.com/2012/03/07/foi-university-challenged/
7 March 2012
The Telegraph has a strong editorial saying the public interest would not be served by imposing further restrictions on Freedom of Information requests: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/9128803/Open-government.html
1 March 2012
David Higgerson has posted about his experience of appearing before the Justice Committee http://davidhiggerson.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/foi-thoughts-after-appearing-in-front-of-a-commons-committee/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
28 February 2012
Co-founder of the saveFOI campaign, FOIMan has a post with his observations on the Justice Committee’s second post-legislative scrutiny session http://www.foiman.com/archives/529
25 February 2012
The Peterborough Evening Telegraph has a pro-FOI article which refers to the saveFOI campaign http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/features/information_overload_1_3561764
24 February 2012
Journalism.co.uk have a podcast featuring our own FOIMan! http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/2012/02/24/jpod-assessing-the-impact-of-the-freedom-of-information-act-on-journalism-and-its-future/
24 February 2012
Journalist David Hencke has a short item on his blog in anticipation of his evidence session to the Justice Committee next week http://davidhencke.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/save-foi-putting-the-case-to-mps/
24 February 2012
The Kent Courier has a strong pro-FOI editorial responding to Kent County Council’s evidence to the Justice Committee http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Attack-freedom-information/story-15307397-detail/story.html
22 February 2012
“Wirral Council opposes new charges for FOI requests”: local news item on Council’s evidence submitted to Justice Committee http://www.wirralnews.co.uk/wirral-news/local-wirral-news/2012/02/22/wirral-council-opposes-new-charges-for-foi-requests-80491-30375316/
21 February 2012
The Constitution Unit at UCL, the Campaign for Freedom of Information and Whatdotheyknow.com all have blog reports on their evidence session at the Justice Committee
http://foia.blogspot.com/2012/02/foi-post-legislative-scrutiny-campaign.html
http://www.mysociety.org/2012/02/21/whatdotheyknow-justice-ctte/
20 February 2012
The #saveFOI campaign gets national media attention (and look out for podcast featuring #saveFOI supporter @FoIManUK) http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/campaign-launched-to-save-the-freedom-of-information-act-/s2/a547952/
19 February 2012
The Information Commissioner himself – Christopher Graham – has written a strongly-worded piece in the Observer challenging criticism of FOI http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/19/freedom-of-information-scaremongering?intcmp=239
and there is also an article arising from Graham’s piece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/19/information-commissioner-hits-out-whitehall-critics
15 February 2012
Louise Restell, of the Public Law Project, has an excellent blogpost called “What Price Freedom of Information” http://blog.qualitysolicitors.com/2012/02/15/what-price-freedom-of-information/
13 February 2012
@FOIMonkey has guestblogged at confirmordeny.org.uk – a quite outstanding compendium of “366 Interesting things that we know because of FOI requests made using WhatDoTheyKnow.com” http://www.confirmordeny.org.uk/?p=243“
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