Don’t direct students to file FOI requests to universities, Texas lecturers told
From the US last week, but worth reading – a curious situation for journalism academics: Journalism teachers sometimes instruct students to file such requests under the Texas Public Information Act to...
View ArticleBBC News: Hundreds more organisations could be covered by FOI law
Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg will tomorrow announce that hundreds more organisations could be made subject to Freedom of Information laws, the BBC reports today. According to the broadcaster, the...
View Article#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – FOI request ideas
Looking for some inspiration for story leads? Check out this list of 20 example freedom of information request ideas on David Higgerson’s blog, to help get the ball rolling. Tipster: Rachel McAthy. To...
View ArticleThe Lawyer: Harrow Council considers making all FOI data public
Harrow Council is considering plans to proactively publish all information that would be released under an FOI request, reports the Lawyer. Harrow has seen a 160 per cent increase in the number of FOI...
View Article#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – better FOI requests
David Higgerson has used Twitter to crowdsource some advice from local authority staff on what journalists can do to improve their freedom of information requests pulling together some of the responses...
View ArticleBudget details held back by Treasury press office
Finance journalist Chris Wheal reports that the Treasury press office will not provide him with figures showing how much worse off families will be as a result of the budget. Wheal recorded a...
View Article#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – FOI blogs and websites
The International Forum for Responsible Media blog (Inforrm) has compiled this useful list of sites and blogs relating to Freedom of Information issues which it links to in its work. A great resource...
View ArticleDavid Higgerson: Journalists must keep pushing for open data
David Higgerson, head of multimedia for Trinity Mirror Regionals, has published the address he made about data journalism at the FutureEverything conference in Manchester last week, making some...
View ArticleCan FOI requests be submitted on Twitter? Yes, says ICO
In its monthly newsletter, sent out yesterday (28 July), the Information Commissioners Office sought to clarify an interesting question: whether or not people can use Twitter to submit freedom of...
View ArticlePetition for Hillsborough papers release exceeds 120,000 signatures
The BBC reported yesterday that an online petition calling for cabinet papers relating to the Hillsborough disaster to be released had collected 100,000 signatures, which is the amount required for the...
View ArticleAP test claims 50% of countries with FOI laws ‘do not follow them’
Of the 105 countries which have laws governing the freedom of information, more than 50 per cent “do not follow them”, according to a test carried out by the Associated Press. In a report on the...
View ArticleNewspaper Society: Justice select committee calls for evidence on FOI Act
The Newspaper Society issued a reminder this morning that the justice select committee has made a call for evidence on “the operation” of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – as part of its...
View Article#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – new guide to Freedom of Information Act
The Information Commissioner’s Office has produced a “new plain English guide to Freedom of Information”. It is aimed at helping “public authorities better understand what the Act says and how to...
View Article#jpod – Assessing the impact of the Freedom of Information Act and its future
This week’s jpod comes days after the Justice Select Committee began hearing evidence as part of its review of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Given the impact of the legislation on the everyday...
View Article#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – how to ask for data under FoI
At a meeting of Hacks/Hackers Canterbury on Monday, Nicola Hughes, a Knight-Mozilla fellow working at the Guardian, was asked a question about how to best get hold of a spreadsheet containing data...
View Article#Tip: Advice for making FOI requests in the UK and US
By Mark Fischer on Flickr. Some rights reserved. Freedom of Information laws are a game changer for journalists anywhere, opening up the inner workings of government for inspection and now 90 countries...
View ArticleNYT: What would Daniel Ellsberg have done with Pentagon Papers if Wikileaks...
Now that it is relatively simple for anyone in possession of leaked documents to publish them directly to the internet, is there any reason to pass them on to a national newspaper? With the viral...
View ArticleEd Walker: Council documents tell stories too, not just FOI requests
Ed Walker looks at the different types of papers and reports released by councils in the UK and how these can lead to news stories. This is a detailed post with advice on how to organise your research...
View ArticleLocal council says it will start charging for FOI requests
A local council in Chester has announced it will start charging for freedom of information requests, claiming the service is currently being misused and manipulated. According to a press release from...
View ArticleDavid Higgerson: Tell your readers about failed FOI requests
A blog post by David Higgerson, head of multimedia for Trinity Mirror Regionals, this week addresses the issue of FOI request refusals and what he thinks journalists should do if they hit a brick wall...
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