The freedom of information act was brought in by the labour government when they came to power in 1997, but was not put into effect until 2005. The act allows all citizens a right to all documents and data produced by organisations in the public sector. It has been used by journalists most notably in the recent expenses scandal. This was uncovered by Heather Brooke, a journalist who tends to focus on freedom of information stories many of which can be found on her blog. She approached the government asking for details on MP expenses. After they procrastinated for some time about releasing them, they were leaked, and all the gory details bacame public knowledge anyway. From Devon's favourite MP Anthony Steen, and his moat-cleaning. To Jacqui Smith's Porno-loving husband. Before the FOI act was implemented, you would have been unable to prove that such things had been paid for with expenses as they would most probably have lied.
Basically the FOI act means that if you ask a public organisation for certain info, they have to say that they have it, and they must give it to you. This is unless the information is exempted. This could be for a variety of reasons, for example: national security and state secrets, it is quite reasonable that the MOD would not freely give out information that would compromise the safety of its troops, nor any data that could put Britain at risk. At the same time, you will not be able to invade anyone's privacy; You could ask a hospital a broad question of how many people are treated for swine flu each year, but you could not ask if an individual had swine flu. (Doctor-Patient confidentiality).
While not exactly exemptions, there are certain things that can inhibit your ability to obtain information. Firstly, you have to know your jargon. You could ask a company for information on a certain topic, but they might have a different name for that topic and could therefore truthfully say 'no we don't have anything on that'. It has also become practice in some cases for people who may be discussing something particularly sensitive to not record data about it, or keep minutes etc, thereby stopping you from getting info by never recording any. There is also the question of fees. According to McNae's, if the cost of meeting your request would be over £600 in the case of government and national departments, or £450 in the case of local councils and similar types of authorities, they would not be obliged to give you the requested information, or they could charge you for it.
If you are refused, for any reason, you can appeal the decision by going to an information commissioner, and they will be able to adjudicate whether it was fair for the organisation to refuse you. If they decide that it wasn't, they can force them to give you whatever you asked for.
It is quite possible to use the FOI act to forge a successful career as a journalist. It is mostly down to perseverance. Matt Davis published several front page stories as a freelance FOI writer. He wrote a story headlined, 'Worst Hospitals in Britain', in this case, 'worst' was decided by the number of litigations filed against various hospitals, how much each of them has been sued for, and compiled the results into a league table (this would be protected by fair comment, because if a hospital complained about being at the top of the table, it would be fair to say "you've been sued the most, ergo, you can't be doing a good job!"). He also unearthed a very interesting story as a result of the success of Sacha Baron Cohen's film 'Borat'. He requested details of whether there had been any complaints directed at Britain. It turned out that Kazakhstan calm almost to the brink of declaring war on Britain in retaliation to the bad publicity it was getting as result of the film. Matt Davis has a blog that covers FOI stories.
The most important things to remember about FOI journalism is to track popular culture, as shown with the Borat piece, use the exact jargon for your subject matter to avoid letting them waste your time. And never take no for an answer, keep trying, keep rephrasing until you get what you want. As James Bond says on Family Guy,
"Fifteen no's and a yes, is still a yes".
No comments:
Post a Comment