Just over seven years since it became a valuable tool for anyone wishing to hold public authorities to account, a consultation on how effective the current FOI Act is, closes.

In January last year, Lord McNally and the Deputy Prime Minister announced a plan to begin a ‘post-legislative assessment of the Freedom of Information Act’ and the Justice Select Committee issued a call for evidence before Christmas.

The scope of the evidence call includes:

•  Does the Freedom of Information Act work effectively?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Freedom of Information Act?
• Is the Freedom of Information Act operating in the way that it was intended to?

So far, so reasonable. We can all point to ways the Freedom of Information Act could be improved, more of which in a later post.

However, a memorandum produced by the MoJ into the effectiveness of the FOI Act, is set to play a key role in determining the scope of the review which follows.

It’s a weighty document, and contains plenty of research to support the fact that the FOI Act has made a big difference, but it also brings up some issues which need challenging straight away.

According to the Campaign for Freedom of Information, areas the memorandum covers include:

· Increasing request volumes
· The cost to public authorities and impact on resources
· The difficulty in refusing vexatious requests
· The level of protection given to policy advice and cabinet papers
· The impact on public authorities with commercial functions

For those who find the FOI Act an irritant, or who nod to the principle of openness but would like to restrict levels of openness, the points above could be a chink of light to lobby for restrictive alterations to the Act.

Mutterings about how much it costs to deal with FOI requests have always been there. However, the spending cuts have turned a mutter into a rumble, often led by politicians who fail to address how they would be open and accountable without the FOI Act. Some have even shown a blatant disregard for the Act – for example Cheshire West and Chester’s attempt to charge for dealing with FOI requests, seemingly not realising the current law doesn’t allow such a fee.

Perhaps this is best demonstrated by a ramble by a senior councillor at Hampshire County Council last year, who declared it was wrong for the council to be effectively researching front page stories for the local newspaper. This roughly translates as ‘Why are we making it easy for the paper to writing stories we’d rather they didn’t?’ But it also plays to another myth - that FOI is a tool mainly used by journalists. To be honest, it was a myth I believed until recently, until several FOI officers told me that media requests perhaps account for 35% of their requests.The use of FOI goes far beyond the reporter looking for a story – as demonstrated by the use of Whatdotheyknow, and in disclosure logs where public bodies use them.

In the consultation document, there is talk of including reading time in the charging time for dealing with an FOI request – £25 per hour up to £450 in the case of all bodies bar central government – and adding in other ‘chargeable activities’ which would have the impact of increasing the number of requests which were thrown out on cost grounds. This could become a handy middle ground for MPs seeking to retain openness but acknowledging that things are tight in the public sector. The result would be to replace ‘your right to know’ with ‘our right to decide what you can have’ – if, indeed, we aren’t already there anyway.

Am I being over-dramatic? Maybe. After all, the government insists it is committed to FOI. But given it is dragging its heels on a decision on whether to make organisations which take on traditionally public sector duties – part of the Big Society – subject to FOI, this is a case of actions speaking louder than words. The Cabinet Office, the department right at the very heart of government, is one of the most awkward organisations to deal with. The irony of the Cabinet Office – which believed the files relating to Hillsborough should remain secret - being on the Information Commissioner’s naughty step shouldn’t be lost on the justice committee.

What’s more, MPs talk regularly about being transparent on their expenses following the expenses scandal, but it didn’t stop them using several hours of House of Commons time just before Christmas to complain about their new system, with ‘stories about expenses in the media’ one of their main gripes. We should beware the double-speak of politicians when they talk about accountability at all times.

I believe this review is based on the spirit of improving the Freedom of Information Act. It’s important we help ensure it does turn out to be that, and not an opportunity to reduce access to information. The Government memorandum states “limited evidence” about requesters’ views on the Act. If, as a journalist who uses FOI, you find time to do one thing this week, it should be to help make sure that your experience of FOI – the frustrations, the limitations, the successes – are in the inbox of the Justice Committee.

We can’t complain about changes we don’t like if we don’t get involved.

The deadline for submissions is Friday, February 3. They should be sent to: justicecommemo@parliament.uk

As part of that process, the Government has submitted its assessment of how the Act has worked in practice to the Justice Select Committee.

The Committee will then decide whether to carry out further scrutiny of the Act.

The Memorandum examines how the Act was implemented and how it is used, the extent to which information is revealed under the Act and the impacts of the Act on public authorities. It explores the objectives of the Act when it was first passed and evaluates whether those objectives have been met.

There was the usual gnashing of teeth on Twitter at the fact someone had the nerve to ask, via FOI, the Metropolitan Police to reveal how much it spent on calls to the Speaking Clock.

The answer? £35,000 in two years.

Whenever an FOI response which could be deemed as frivolous emerges, there’s always someone to bemoan  the cost of supplying the FOI. Canny councillors point to the fact they are being asked to make cuts, yet the public still have the right to ask for information which costs money to retrieve.  Some police forces now have tickers on their site which say how much has been spent dealing on FOI requests – automated, you understand, to save money, but also making them utterly pointless.

I’ve even seen a number of journalists complaining that other journalists are abusing FOI with such requests. Follow that logic through and councils wouldn’t have to meet in public, because meeting in public on the off chance a journalist might attend is more expensive than signing stuff off on the quiet.

That said, there remains a duty on a journalist using FOI to make sure their story is in context. FOI delivers facts you ask for. Some authorities will provide additional information to add context – Kirklees Council had a policy whereby the council leader decided what context to add – but it should be the duty of a journalist to ensure they use the facts in a rounded way.

James Ball, a journalist at the Guardian, took the Met Police speaking clock story and applied some context:

The Metropolitan Police is a huge organisation: it has more than 35,000 officers and PSCOs, plus more than 13,000 civilian staff. Even trivial amounts of spending per officer quickly adds up.

So what does the spend on the speaking clock represent? The force spent £16,879 on calls to the service in 2010/11. At 31p per call, that’s just under 54,500 calls over the year.

That works out as 1.5 calls to the speaking clock for each officer, or in other words represents each officer in the force using the service just once or twice each year.

Does such context kill the story? Maybe, maybe not. The speaking clock still feels like a waste of money to me, but if we want to retain the right to know, surely we have to make sure those who we pass such knowledge on to do so with as much of the context as possible at their disposal.

What’s the best way to get an authority to take the Freedom of Information Act more seriously? Report them to the Information Commissioner? Shout about them in the newspaper?

How about showing them how the Act can uncover information in their favour too?

Admittedly, that wasn’t the aim Liverpool Post and Echo city editor David Bartlett will have set out with when he put an FOI request into the Department for Transport asking about government grants given to projects in and around Southampton docks over the years.

But the effect was still the same – and hopefully a bit of a kick for Liverpool City Council, an authority with a patchy record when it comes to dealing with FOI requests.

Liverpool City Council and Southampton have been at loggerheads in recent months over a cruise terminal which has been built on the banks of the Mersey right in the heart of Liverpool’s historic waterfront. When public funding was secured for the project, it was only ever intended to be used as a stopping point for cruise ships, not for cruises to begin or end journeys.

Understandably, Liverpool spied an opportunity to get more visitors in and requested permission to change the use of the cruise terminal so that cruises could start and end there. Currently, a cruise which wishes to begin on the Mersey has to do so in rusty old docks down the road which, to be frank, don’t exactly set you up for a happy holiday.

Southampton, in turn, objected, arguing it was unfair to use public money to create a rival port where cruises could begin and end. I believe Port of Tyne has also objected.

David’s FOI request to the DfT resulted in the release of details which showed how £50million of public cash had been used to improve reliability on roads to access Southampton docks, which in turn puts a rather different spin on Southampton’s line that the use of public money to support a port is unfair.

It will also be prove to be a handy weapon for Liverpool City Council as it continues to plead with the Department for Transport to put economic prospects ahead of red tape.

Hopefully, too, it will demonstrate to the city council the value of FOI. Liverpool City Council’s track record on your right to know is patchy at best. Last year, it emerged it was asking people to provide birth certificates to prove who they were before dealing with FOI requests while back in 2009, the council’s register of hospitality was tweaked before being issued to David following an FOI request.

This case should prove to authorities that FOI is a two-way street – sometimes you have to give out information you’d rather not, but there’s plenty of scope to get the answers you want from elsewhere too.

1. Cheating Students – Northampton Chronicle

INCIDENTS of plagiarism by students at the University of Northampton in exam coursework have increased by 65 per cent in the past four years.

Latest figures show that 391 students were found guilty of ‘academic misconduct’ which primarily relates to deliberate or unintentional cases of copying other people’s work.

The statistics, available from a Freedom of Information request, show there were 237 incidents of academic misconduct in 2006/7, 245 in 2007/8, 284 in 2008/9 and 391 in 2009/10.

2. Council bosses take redundancy – and return as consultants – Merton Guardian

Town hall bosses have “serious questions to answer” after Merton’s cash-strapped council spent thousands of pounds on redundancy payouts to senior employees, only to rehire them as highly-paid consultants.

Since May 2010, five so-called ‘boomerang bosses’ have found jobs back at Merton Council after £178,000 was spent laying them off.

A series of emails, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show that a week before chief executive Ged Curran authorised her job offer, the council’s head of human resources, Dean Shoesmith, gave Ms Williams instructions on how to become a consultant.

3. 72 benefit cheats in Lincolnshire caught claiming more than £320k – Louth Target

MORE than £320,000 in benefits has been fraudulently claimed in East Lindsey in the last nine months.

In total, 72 benefit cheats were caught by the district council during that period with the biggest fraudster, from Alford, being successfully prosecuted for claiming £58,325 too much for failing to declare a partner living in the household.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that 15 people were brought before the courts for the offences in 2009/10 compared to 30 in 2010/11.

However East Lindsey District Council, who brought the prosecutions, says the figures don’t necessarily mean fraud is on the increase.

4. Unspent parks cash revealed – Sunderland Echo

AN Echo investigation has revealed that more than £680,000 for play park improvements remain unspent despite some of the facilities becoming rundown, derelict and “dangerous”.

The money has been building up since 2005. All of it has been received through deals the council has reached. These Section 106 arrangements are where money is given to a council to spend on improving an area from developers.

The information, which was obtained by the Echo through a Freedom of Information Act request, also revealed that the council is waiting to collect more than £2.5million from similar agreements.

5. Police take 60,000 sick days- Reading Post

Thames Valley Police officers and staff took a total of more than 60,000 days off sick last year, with muscle strains, broken bones and psychological problems among the main causes.

A Freedom of Information (FoI) request revealed officers and staff – who number 8,054, – took 61,374 days off because of illness or injury between April 2010 and March 2011.

6. The cost of gyspy clean ups – Lancashire Telegraph

Councils have spent almost £40,000 removing and cleaning up after travellers in the past four years.

The money includes that spent on legal fees to remove travellers from illegal encampments, as well as the cost of clearing, and safeguarding, sites after their departure.

The figures, released to the Lancashire Telegraph following a Freedom of Information Act request, show Burnley Council’s costs related to removal of travellers from local authority land stood at £7,433.47 in 2008, £9,877.43 in 2009, £10,109.96 in 2010, and £3,539.90 last year.

7. The council which banned A-boards after complaints, which FOI revealed never existed – Grimsby Telegraph

A PUB manager has expressed anger over a council crackdown on unlicensed A-boards after it was revealed that only six reports – and no official complaints – have been made.

As reported, North East Lincolnshire Council announced a crackdown on advertising boards, describing them as “clutter” in letters to five Grimsby businesses in September last year.

NELC said it was a response to “complaints” about the boards placed on footpaths.

However, a Freedom Of Information (FOI) request has since revealed that the council received no official complaints and only six reports of unlicensed A-boards.

8. More than 600 homeless in north east Wales in just eight months – Daily Post

MORE than 600 families in north east Wales declared themselves homeless in the last eight months – but there are only enough empty council properties to house just over half of them.

Flintshire councillors are calling for the authority to revamp private homes, and rent them to those families.

A Freedom of Information request revealed 507 people, including families, couples and those living alone, have presented themselves as homeless to Wrexham Council since April this year, as well as 73 in Flintshire and 82 in Denbighshire.

9. Books lost by universities – Southampton Echo

THEY are the vital tools for studying students, but a Hampshire university has admitted it has lost track of thousands of its library books.

Southampton Solent University doesn’t know where 6,126 books are, which is the ninth-highest number of any higher education institution in the country.

The figure has been released as part of a response to a Freedom of Information request that has found universities around the country have raised nearly £50m in the last six years by fining students for overdue library books.

10. Council spending on private detectives – Sunday Sun

A SPENDING probe is under way at a North council after the Sunday Sun uncovered how private detectives have earned more than £35,000 for carrying out its work.

Our investigation has revealed Middlesbrough forked out £35,609 over four years to sleuths – that’s the highest amount paid out by any of the region’s authorities.

The council claims the work of the private investigators could have potentially saved taxpayers’ cash because – among other jobs – they were employed to snoop on folk planning to sue the council.

Using Freedom of Information laws, we learned other North councils have also hired their services, to carry out surveillance on folk suing authorities, serve legal papers and even for surveillance operations in child protection cases.

On Boxing Day, at my parents, I saw this advert on the side of a milk bottle.

And here’s the thing – it reminded me to buy the newspaper.

I’ve blogged about this before, and I remain convinced that at least part of the battle for local and regional newspapers is reminding people that they are part of their lives, and can add to their lives too.

Getting the message on a side of a milk bottle – and the area where my parents live is an area which still has a lot of people receiving daily milk – is a way of getting back in the eye of the reader. Several hours later, I was in a local petrol station and saw a copy of the LEP. I bought it. Thanks to the milk bottle? Not sure – but a likely prompt amid the chaos of Christmas.

Several days later, I was in the small Lincolnshire town of Bourne, home of the Bourne Local newspaper. This permanent advertising sits in the centre of the town:

Ok, so it’s a little Royston Vasey in tone, but it’s also highlighting the USP of the Local. Admittedly, the sign on the front door of the paper’s office – announcing they wouldn’t be back until January 10 at the earliest – wasn’t the most informative way of keeping in contact with readers, but the Local clearly connects with readers.

The edition between Christmas and new year was just 20 pages – a fact remarked upon by a sales assistant in the nearby Sainsburys who said some people had been buying two by mistake (one way to keep sales steady over Christmas I guess) – yet there were a lot of people buying it.

Both the advert and the milk bottle promotion do, of course, involve some marketing spend. But both are examples of spend which has a lasting impact – who knows  how long that milk bottle will be circulation? Both are also a constant, if unexpected, reminder that the paper is still there.

Can we do that for free? Making sure we’re promoting ourselves in a suitable way to would-be readers when they go about their daily lives? Yes.

Leaping online for a moment, I’ve seen countless examples of front pages being posted on Facebook or Twitter prompting reaction and discussion. I also know from looking at Trinity Mirror Twitter accounts that it’s not uncommon to get requests about when something is appearing in the paper, how they get hold of a paper, or a thank you for putting something out which prompted them to buy the paper.

Social media, therefore, is a way of getting the brand – effectively a service to readers – into the view of would-be readers. Many, many journalists ‘get’ Facebook and Twitter – as the primary examples currently – but seeing it more than just a tool for getting stories is the next big step.

If ever there was a reason for newsrooms and newspapers to put social media at the heart of their operations, then it’s surely this. It doesn’t necessarily cost a penny, it just takes a bit of bottle…

Happy New Year (This picture wasn't taken on New Year's Day but at dawn, about two years ago in mid January, as the sun rose above the Nile in Luxor. A great thing to do on New Year's Day, I would imagine)

Happy new year! Here’s a list to kick off 2012.

It’s a list I’ve been mulling over for a while – a list of blogs by journalists which i enjoy, and which I think will be of interest to other journalists, or which could provide inspiration for journalists to start blogging themselves.

It’s not meant as a ‘top 21 best blogs’ – just a list, in alphabetical order, of blogs I think are worth checking out. I know many of the authors on the list, and I work with some of them too, although I’ve tried to make sure it doesn’t just become a list of blogs about journalism, or blogs by people who work for the same company as me.

Blogging, for journalists, can be an onerous task on top of all the other day-to-day duties in the newsroom, but hopefully this list helps to prove that it can be worth the effort. Likewise, simply finding blogs to follow via a reader can be a task in itself, but again, hopefully this list can provide a start.

Suggestions, of course, welcome on other blogs by journalists which should be shouted about…

1. Peter Barron: Peter Barron blog

Peter Barron, the editor of the Northern Echo, is one of just a small handful of editors to blog on a regular basis. Through his blog, he shines a light on what is going on in the newsroom, and his take on the big issues in the Echo’s part of the North East is an insightful addition to the Echo’s website. If I was web editor in Darlington, I’d be giving his blog a bigger show on the site. And, at the risk of being controversial, I’d go so far as to say a blog like this is proof that a daily ‘editor’s letter/column’ is a more valuable use of space in the print edition than the out-dated leader column.

2.David Bartlett: Dale Street Associates

David is city editor at the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo and has a political blog with a difference. Many political journalists have blogs, but few go beyond just pushing out extra opinion (I should know, I have one like that!) But David’s is much more than that. It’s gone from providing additional commentary and local political exclusives to being a hub for many in Liverpool’s vocal political community, and now has a cast of bloggers including MPs, councillors and political activists. Proof of its success lies in the fact that, for a while, it was blocked on Liverpool City Council computers.

Proof, if it were needed, that you can get out of blogging what you put in, if you’re prepared to do the putting in first.

3. David Bentley: The Geek Files

David Bentley, who is part of the Trinity Mirror web team in the Midlands, does this blog because he has a passion for the subject: anything sci-fi and cult. Ok, so you might argue that the web was invented for these sorts of blogs, but it’s an incredibly competitive subject matter too, and David has built up a heck of a niche of his own within this niche. Having seen the traffic he generates, it’s clear he has a big following on both sides of the Atlantic, and he regularly gets exclusives to break on the site from inside sources within related industries. A big success, and fun to read even if you’re not (like me) a huge fan of sci-fi.

4. Paul Bradshaw: Online Journalism Blog

I’ve known Paul for several years now, and his blog has been an inspiration for various projects I’ve embarked on, as well as a good source of challenging commentary. Over recent months, it has more of an emphasis on data journalism, so if that’s a field you’re planning to get into, Paul’s blog is a must.

5. Steve Buttry: The Buttry Diary

Steve is Director of Community Engagement & Social Media, Digital First Media, part of the Journal Register Company, an American print and online news business which is pretty cutting edge. There are a lot of people talking about the idea of ‘digital first’ at the moment – as opposed to web first. What’s the difference? To me, web first was all about getting people to think ‘let’s get that online’ whereas digital first is getting people put digital at the centre of all thinking around content creation. The Guardian, for example, has been talking about Digital First. Steve is already doing it – and his blog is a great insight into that.

6. Garry Cook: Long Lens Blog

I’ve known Garry for a few years now and he’s one of the most versatile journalists I know: sub, writer, photographer, storyteller. I think photography is his big passion, and this blog showcases the different stuff he gets up to behind the lens. I’ve blogged about Garry’s diversification before – such as his range of documentary Christmas cards – and his blog goes into some depth about the trials and challenges he faces. The blog about his new childrens book series – Albert the Pug – is also worth having a look at

7. Paul Delplanque: Remember When

Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be, or so goes the old newsroom joke. In the case of Paul’s blog, that joke is true – because it’s better. Nostalgia-type coverage has long been part and parcel of the newspaper mix, but Paul’s blog shows just what a success it can be online too. This isn’t a re-purpose-the-print-content-online idea, it’s all about building a community, sharing new content and asking people to get involved. The time, effort and dedication of Paul on his blog results in a blog about a subject which some would describe as niche appearing in the top three Trinity Mirror blogs list.

8. Andy Dickinson: Andydickinson.net

I can point you in the direction of many journalism lecturers who fulfill the criteria of ‘those who can’t, teach’ but Andy Dickinson isn’t one of them. I learn something every time I get so much as a direct message on Twitter from Andy and his blog is a brilliant mix of opinion and useful how-to stuff, with a particular emphasis on video.

9. Alison Gow: Headlines and Deadlines

There are few editors that blog effectively, and even fewer who do so in a way which really invites people into their world, not just their corporate environment. That’s what makes Alison’s blog great – and it’s also proof that it’s possible to be passionate about digital and still passionate about ‘traditional’ news.

10: Peter Guy: Getintothis

It’s probably a little self-indulgent to include this blog, because I worked with Peter and helped him launch it, but that’s where my involvement ended. This is a brilliant example of a blog which grew thanks to the author’s passion for the subject. In Peter’s case, it’s a love of undiscovered and up-and-coming indie music. Over the four years it has been growing, Peter’s reputation, and that of the blog, has grown to such an extent that it’s not uncommon to see his review being pushed out by PRs.

The blog has also spawned an award for those involved in the Liverpool music scene. The blog was also one of the earliest examples I saw of an author adopting a collaborative approach and opening up the blog to anyone with a similar passion for music

11. Colin Horne: Path to Ensightenment

I know Colin from working with him at the Lancashire Evening Telegraph. This Tumblr blog basically showcases the stuff he’s been shooting both for the Telegraph and in other parts of his photographic life. There’s such a wealth of talent among regional press photographers, and it’s great to see Colin doing his work justice and giving an insight into the life of regional press photographer.

12. Mandy Jenkins: Zombiejournalism

Mandy is social news editor for the Huffington Post in America, and was heavily involved in the groundbreaking tbd.com. She describes her blog ‘Creating hope for the future of journalism and dropping some knowledge on journalists everywhere’ and she achieves both, with a particular interest at the moment in the evolution of Facebook for journalists.

13. Vicki Kellaway: Bananaskinflipflops

Travel blogs can be so self-indulgent, but mix in a journalist with an eye for detail and the ability to write, and you have a brilliant blog. Vicki, a former Liverpool ECHO reporter, went travelling in South America and fell in love with Bogotá, Colombia. Her blog is funny, moving, insightful, fascinating, addictive – a must read. No wonder it’s won awards.

14. Martin Rosenbaum: Open Secrets

Martin Rosenbaum is the BBC’s FOI expert, and will know more about FOI than I ever will. His blog provides an interesting insight into different aspects of FOI at the BBC, and his analysis of the Beeb’s battle for Hillsborough information during 2011 was particularly fascinating, even if I didn’t agree with the ultimate decision to agree a compromise with the Cabinet Office. Excellent blog for anyone who deals in FOI on a regular basis.

15. Dan Slee: The Dan Slee Blog

Dan works in PR for Walsall Council, but is a journalist by trade, and that comes through in his blog effectively. Constantly alive to what social media and internet tools in general can do for public sector communications, Dan’s blog has been inspiration for ideas I’ve worked on on several occasions.

16. Dan Smith: Weird Science

Dan Smith works in sport for Trinity Mirror newspapers in the Midlands. Normally, if I see anything with the word science in the title, I run a mile – I hated it at school, and I’ve hated it ever since. But Dan, who is clearly passionate about science, blogs brilliantly about the stuff which makes science fun, such as Sprinters are built like cheetahs, Velociraptor’s claw ‘trapped prey’, UFOs over Glastonbury and How to get a hit record. Science can be fun, thanks to talented writers like Dan.

17. Various: Journalism.co.uk editor’s blog

Regular readers of my blog will remember my annoyance at a churlish ‘opinion’ piece written by journalism.co.uk in relation to the Birmingham Mail’s excellent coverage of the riots on its website. I still remain of the opinion that it was short-sighted, borderline offensive and demonstrated a lack of knowledge at how news organisations operate in a regional setting, but we’re all allowed an off day, and the blog remains at source of great tips for journalists, as well as a showcase for handy new online tools for journalists to use.

18. Various: Guardian Datablog

There are a lot of things I don’t like about the Guardian, but also a lot of things I do (oddly, given its determination to do down the printed newspaper industry as often as possible – or so it seems – I’m really enjoying it’s print edition every day at the moment). And the thing I enjoy the most about the Guardian online is the datablog. It’s a great gateway to the world of data, digging out, presenting and analysing data from all sorts of sources. In some respects, it’s make open data really useful to people in a format they can understand without data-mashing expertise, and for regional newsroom journalists, that makes it very useful indeed.

19. Various: 10,000 Words

I was a little sad when blog author Mark S Luckie sold his blog to become part of the Mediabistro family, as I was concerned some of what made his blog great – ie him and his ability to show how we should be working online – would be lost. There’s no doubt that the blog has become more commercial since, but given the number of ideas it reveals each week, that’s certainly a price worth paying.

20. Ed Walker: Edwalker.net

Ed is someone we’re fortunate to have on the team at Trinity Mirror, but I was aware of his work long before he joined the company in Cardiff, as he is the brains behind Blog Preston, a hyperlocal site which has stood the test of time and – rarely – been handed from one pair of safe hands to another over several years. Ed’s knowledge and ideas go way beyond hyperlocal, and it’s his ability to spot new opportunities online and make them work in mainstream newsrooms and on mainstream websites which makes his personal blog a must read.

21: Kerry Wilkinson: Blog

Like Garry Cook (above), Kerry Wilkinson is someone I worked with on and off for a few years. His blog is part of a site set up to promote his series of detective books based on the character Jessica Daniel – but the blog is much more than that. Kerry is enjoying considerable success as a self-published author – his first book has shifted 100,000 copies, most of which I think are digital – so his most recent posts are updating fans of the series on how the books are doing. But Kerry is very much an accidental author, he set out to prove he could write and book and things went on from there. His ‘journey’ – to use a Simon Cowell cliché – is set out in the blog posts, and is fascinating … not least the recent one where he was blackmailed for a good review of someone else’s book.

1. Is this the most jaw-dropping CCTV still ever?

Do you remember the days when a police call which involved a promise of CCTV was pretty much always guaranteed to end up with a long battle with technology or a trip to the cop shop to pick up a grainy image which had more in common with Magic Eye pictures than it did with 20:20 sharp focus?

Friday’s first edition front page of the Manchester Evening News carries what I think is probably the most striking, and shocking CCTV still I’ve ever seen on a newspaper.

2. 10 Social Network search engines for journalists

Google Realtime, the search engine which was intended to integrate social network updates into Google, has been suspended, the company announced at the weekend.

Whether it returns at all remains to be seen – in my opinion, it’s the sort of tool Google can’t afford to be without.

It was a very useful tool for journalists too, especially as the ‘say what you see’ culture on Twitter exploded, providing excellent first-hand accounts and sources for reporters, especially local ones.

But there are plenty of other social network search engines worth checking out. Here are 10 of the best.

3. Council spending data: 10 tips for journalists looking for stories

Today marks the deadline for councils to start publishing details of all spending over £500. Local government minister Eric Pickles says he expects all councils to be as open as possible. Some, such as Liverpool, have admitted they’ll miss that deadline, and final details of exactly how all councils should produce the information has yet to be issued.

So how should journalists deal with the data? Here are ten points which I hope might help…

4. Riots in the UK: Thursday’s regional newspaper front pages

Thursday’s front pages revealed just how far the riots – or the fear of the riots – had spread.

Thursday is publication day for many weekly newspapers, and in London in particular, many weeklies sought to find a way to tell the story of what happened in their area. Papers including the Bexley Times, the East London Advertiser and the Islington Gazette had first-hand accounts of how communities were turned into war zones.

The Kilburn Times carried a different line, telling how traders fought off ‘copy-cat looters’ while the Hornsey Journal opted for a more upbeat approach, revealing how clothes and toys had been donated to those left homeless by the riots. The Ham and High newspaper also took an upbeat tones, focusing on the hard work of those trying to clean the area after the riots. Perhaps the most surreal was the Romford Post, which reported how would-be looters couldn’t work out how to smash a Debenham’s window, so gave up.

5. DATA: Without adding context, a journalist with data can be dangerous

If you believe the predictions, 2011 will be the year when journalists have more access to data than ever before. Of course, much of the data will also be accessible to the public in general but I suspect more people will be exposed to data via journalism than will actively seek it themselves.

And with that comes a responsibility to make sure that journalists present the full picture with a set of data. In other words, add some context. The old phrase about lies, lies and statistics can be true if one set of data is taken in isolation.

Paul Bradshaw touched on this when looking at a story in November which ‘revealed’ that Birmingham had more CCTV cameras than any other council area. Does that mean Birmingham residents are more-watched than people living elsewhere? Paul suggested that if you divide the population of each council area by the number of CCTV cameras, the answer is no.

So the challenge for 2011 isn’t just making use of all the data that’s available, it’s making use of it responsibly, linking data together to come up with a true picture.

6. Hyperlocal websites: 10 ideas

Over the past few months, I’ve been researching ways that hyperlocal sites and local newspapers/websites could work together. In my opinion, in many cases the relationship between the two is improving although most would probably suggest there’s a way to go yet.

The idea for this list came out of a few of those conversations. While few, if any, hyperlocal sites seek to replace the local newspaper, I think there are a fair few principles hyperlocal sites could take from local newspapers to attract a wider audience.

To anyone who works in newsrooms, the list below won’t come as a surprise. It’s not intended to be the musing of an arrogant journalist seeking to tell those with hyperlocal sites how to do things – it’s really just ideas from local newspapers which have evolved to serve their communities for over 100 years and, in most cases, continue to do so very well.

7. Journalists: We know we care, but do our readers?

At the news:rewired conference in London, there was a panel discussion about data at a local level. Philip John, one of the brains behind the Lichfield Blog was among those on the panel.

When the panel was asked how to get local journalists interested in data, Philip launched into what he almost instantly told Twitter was a ‘rant.’

He suggested that a problem for local journalists was that they often don’t care about local issues. He cited as an example a recent protest he’d attended in Lichfield against plans to stick the High Speed 2 rail track through the area. Ross Hawkes, the journalist who co-runs the Lichfield Blog, was covering the event for the site.

8. Riots in the UK: Friday’s regional newspaper front pages – telling the story far and wide

A LOOK through Friday’s regional newspapers demonstrates just how far the impact of the rioting in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Liverpool and Gloucester was felt, with papers often hundreds of miles away from looting finding local angles on the story.

In Gwent, South Wales, the South Wales Argus led with a police warning that they were monitoring people on Facebook and Twitter ahead of the weekend, while down the road in Swansea (ok, so my Welsh geography isn’t great), the South Wales Evening Post had news of two arrests in what it called a ‘copycat riot probe.’ There was news of similar arrests on the front pages of the Shropshire Star, the Northampton Chronicle, the Shields Gazette and the Daily Gazette in Colchester.

9. Five search engines (other than Google) for journalists

Warning: This isn’t a knocking post about Google. Google is great for the vast amount of searches we do, but it’s always dangerous as a journalist to fall into the trap of only ever using one search.

If Google does have a problem, it’s the fact that with so many different organisations competing to be on the first page of results, it’s quite possible that the search results for a given term won’t change from one month to the next.

There are an abundance of other search engines around – some good, some bad, some just a little different – but there are a number which I’ve found useful for journalistic purposes over the past few months.

Here’s five – and how they could be used.

10. The rise and rise of journalistic churlishism

We all know about churnalism, but I’m getting a little fed up of churlishism. What’s that, then? Well, to me it’s the so-called ‘analysis’ and ‘opinion’ of other journalists passing judgement on aspects of the news media.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve nothing against people having their say on what we do. In fact, over the last 48 hours, there have been several occasions when readers, or people we connect with on social media, have made it possible to improve our coverage of one of the biggest stories of recent times – the riots.

So what makes a piece of journalistic analysis churlishism? The first tell-tale sign is that some of the key basic aspects of journalism have been missed – such as seeking all sides to an argument.

If it becomes clear that obvious facts have been missed – or the chance to garner obvious facts – in favour of reaching what appears to be pre-determined conclusion, then that’s probably churlishism. And an eye-grabbing headline which makes much of their opinion is probably another sign too.

Another example, and perhaps the best I’ve seen, came from journalism.co.uk. In a piece it labelled as ‘opinion’, journalist Sarah Marshall sets out to prove that students working on the Redbrick student newspaper have ‘outshined’ the Birmingham Post and Mail websites in the coverage of the riots in the city.

Having spent the last two nights working with colleagues on the coverage on several of our websites, including the Mail site, it won’t surprise you to learn I disagree with the conclusion. That’s not a criticism of what Redbrick has produced over the last two days – although it’s a bit patronising that only way Marshall can seek to priase Redbrick is by comparing it favourably to the Post and Mail. It’s worthy of praise anyway.

As for the Post and Mail coverage, Marshall’s argument basically appears to be this: It’s a huge story but it’s not dominating the whole of the home page on either the Post or Mail site. Therefore, she concludes, it’s an example of an organisation which news to focus on its online content more.

So a bit of a sour note to end the list for 2011 on, and perhaps proof of the fact I do rant from here from time to time – but hopefully there’s more to this blog than that!

Jack the Ripper came to the Information Tribunal. Sort of

1. How Jack the Ripper is helping to shape FOI rules

When is it safe for authorities to release details of informants who have helped police solve crimes? Obviously, an informant would expect anonymity – but when does release of their information no longer pose a threat to them, or their family?

According to a ruling by a Freedom of Information Tribunal – the place you go to if you want to appeal an Information Commissioner ruling – the point at which releasing the name of informants via FOI no longer poses a threat to them is somewhere between 100 and 350 years after the event.

And it’s all thanks to Jack the Ripper. Really.

2. 20 FOI ideas to kick off 2011

There has been a spike in traffic coming to my blog this week using the search term ‘FOI ideas.’ Quiet first week back at the office maybe? So, here are 20 FOI ideas to kick off 2011, in no particular order. Happy new year!

3. FOI Friday: Custard spills, charity finances, twocking – and an important breakthrough

4. Meet the council leader who insists on vetting FOI responses

The front page of the Huddersfield Examiner

Being a bit of an FOI geek, a front page headline screaming ‘Freedom of Information? Not Likely’ at a service station on the M62 was always going to catch my attention.

The story, in Monday’s Huddersfield Examiner, is quite an astonishing one. The leader of Kirklees Council, based in Huddersfield, has been altering prepared FOI responses before they go out to the public.

In his defence, Council leader Mehboob Khan says he changes maybe only one in every 100 requests.

5. FOI: The council which only wants one FOI request from you every 60 days

I’ve added another council to the metaphorical transparency naughty step, so it’s time for Chester and Chester West Council - ‘We’ll make you pay for FOI requests’ – and Kirklees Council - ‘We’ll release it if the council leader says we can’ – to budge up a bit.

Take a seat Nottingham City Council, for imposing its own cap on the number of FOI requests an individual can make before they are being ‘vexatious.’

The serial FOI-er in question is a chap called Andy Platt, who runs a blog called NCClols, which basically casts a critical eye over goings on at the city council. He has history with the city council, and used to be work for them, but as we know, FOI requests are supposed to be treated on an ‘applicant blind’ basis.

6. The Hillsborough Files: Don’t be fooled by a Government fudge

The Government tonight announced that it wouldn’t block the release of documents it holds relating to the Hillsborough disaster. As reported widely, the Information Commissioner had ruled the Cabinet Office should release the documents to the BBC following an FOI request which dates back to 2009.

The Government’s new position is being portrayed by some as a U-turn. It had, after all, last week confirmed it planned to appeal the Information Commissioner’s ruling, saying that the documents should only be released once the independent Hillsborough Panel, set up AFTER the BBC’s FOI request was submitted, decided it was the right time to release them.

So what’s changed? Well not very much, in truth. The Government has simply said it is happy for the documents to be disclosed, but when the Hillsborough Panel decides they should be released, and that the families of the 96 victims get to see the documents first. As it happens, there is nothing in the terms of reference of the panel to promote the release of all the documents, a point discovered by the BBC’s FOI expert Martin Rosenbaum.

7. FOI: More from the council which wanted to charge for FOI…

Remember the case of Cheshire West and Chester Council, the authority which sent out a press release about its plans to charge for FOI requests?

It made its announcement and pledged to get a team of officers on the case to work out how they would actually do this.

Not much has been said of it since then – probably because they did what I did, and rang the Information Commissioner’s office only to be told that no, councils can’t just start charging for FOI requests.

Anyway, Cheshire West and Chester Council has come up with another way of silencing those who like to ask awkward questions: It made someone who is either on its payroll or no longer on its payroll sign an agreement not to submit FOI requests or Data Protection Act requests.

8. FOI: The council which asked for a birth certificate before processing an FOI request

Liverpool City Council hasn’t got the best track record for Freedom of Information requests. Earlier this year, it was forced to cough up to the fact it had actively doctored information which had been requested under the FOI Act. Indeed, as far back as 2007, the Information Commissioner was criticising the council for the way it handled FOI requests.

But despite that track record,  the city council appears to have set a new standard in awkwardness by asking an FOI requester to prove that they are who they say they are. Really.

Via whatdotheyknow.com, a Josephine Derby has been submitting a number of FOI requests about things you would suspect senior council officials and councillors might find a little awkward.

9. Two pictures, two days, one reason why many MPs should feel ashamed this week

The House of Commons - Monday, at around 6.30pm

Two pictures for you. The first is a photo I took of my TV – very technologically sophisticated, I know – at around 6.30pm on Monday. The second image, below, is a screenshot taken from the same chamber just after noon on Wednesday:

The House of Commons for PMQs - Wednesday, noon

The picture of the chamber  at the top includes just a sprinkling of MPs, mainly from the North West. The bottom picture shows a packed chamber, crammed to the rafters for a weekly event which – rightly or wrongly – is seen as the highpoint of the political week.

Why, in my opinion, should those two pictures shame many MPs? Simple – the picture at the top was taken during a debate in the release of documents relating to the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, at which 96 people lost their lives. For over 20 years, their families have fought to get all the facts. Only now, do they feel they are close to getting to see all the documents the government holds.

10. FOI officers hunting round-robin requests? Three ways to reduce that happening

An interesting post from the ever-good FOI Man today looking at the mountain of guidance communications staff in the NHS get hit with, including those dealing with FOIs.

It would appears FOI officers are expected to second-guess when an FOI request may be a ’round robin’ in the sense that it has been submitted to more than one body.

In several newsrooms I’ve worked in, the Christmas Eve front page came with a prize. In others, it was seen as the pinnacle of the Christmas specials – and I know of several reporters who’ve come out of the Christmas slog with press trips to far flung destinations to look forward to in the new year.

So, what makes for a Christmas Eve front page? (Warning: what follows is unscientific).

Using a (sort of ) representative sample of 57-ish (told you it was unscientific) front pages from December 24th, I’ve compiled the following (mince) pie chart:

Or, in table form, it looks like this:

The most common feature of the Christmas front page was a story of a brave child or teenager overcoming the odds. Such a story appeared on 20% of the front pages, including the Belfast Telegraph, Birmingham Mail, Daily Echo and the East Anglian Daily Times.

Coming second on the list were stories which involved someone heading home for Christmas – in many cases, these were also stories about brave children or teenagers, although not exclusively.  The Citizen in Gloucestershire had the story of a soldier heading home for Christmas to see his brave baby for the first time,  while the Scarborough Evening News had the story of a woman heading home for Christmas after spending most of the last year in hospital.

Several newspapers even used the most obvious headline of all: Home for Christmas – including the Dorset Echo, Glasgow Evening Times, Hull Daily Mail and the Bristol Evening Post … but if it works, why not?

A number of newspapers used Christmas Eve to celebrate the completion of campaigns. The Lancashire Telegraph in Blackburn celebrated raising the money needed for a local hospice to carry out repair work, while the Leicester Mercury put its toy campaign on the front page and the Peterborough Evening Telegraph celebrated a ‘record year’ for its food donation drive for pensioners in the city. The Coventry Evening Telegraph had a similar success to shout about.

The Hartlepool Mail had a campaign of sorts when it revealed who it was handing festive cash gifts to as part of a promotion, while the Blackpool Evening Gazette was also celebrating campaign success.

If celebrating a campaign of your own didn’t work, then there were always tales of readers rallying round to save Christmas to fall back on. The Edinburgh Evening News led the charge here, claiming to have played a part, with readers, in saving Christmas. The Northampton Chronicle took a more understated approach when celebrating how £50,000 had been raised to pay for a life-saving operation in America for a little girl.

Christmas heartbreak featured on several front pages, including the Wigan Evening Post, which demonstrated the value of a follow-up by interviewing the widow of the of submarine officer who was shot dead by a colleague on a sub earlier this year. The Brighton Argus had a similarly sad story to remind readers that not everyone was due a happy Christmas, while the South Wales Evening Post combined shopping and a festive flood to tick several festive boxes.

One of my favourite front pages was this one from the Sheffield Star which used its front page to celebrate 12 stars from the community who had done great things for the Steel City over the last 12 months.

Some of the more unusual examples of weaving Christmas into the news agenda included the Bradford Telegraph and Argus reporting ‘Christmas in prison for the cat-killing councillor’ while David Cameron got a Father Christmas makeover in East Anglia as a wish list of demands for 2012 was produced by the Eastern Daily Press.

For some titles, it was business as usual, not least at the Paisley Daily Express which had a murder appeal splashed across the front page, while on the south coast, the Western Morning News was reporting on how weekly bin collections were still unlikely to reappear. It did have a rather nice picture of a Christmas tree though.

However, in most cases, even the strongest of splash stories on any other day would have struggled to remove the Christmas special – as demonstrated on several front pages which saw strong news stories playing supporting roles to tales of – generally – festive cheer.

So, from this self-indulgent look at festive front pages, can we determined how you can increase your chances of the Christmas front page? Judge for yourself – as you know, data never lies … honest!

Full gallery of front pages below: Which do you like the best?

24: TweetChat

Tweetchat is a bit like Twinitor, the first tool I featured on this list in that the idea behind it is so simple, yet it makes such a difference when using it.

If you are a reporter covering a council meeting, live event or football match via Twitter and using a hashtag to update, then Tweetchat is the tool for you.

Log on using Twitter and tell it the hashtag you plan to use or follow – in the example above I have used #bcfc, the preferred hashtag for Birmingham City fans. It figures that anyone tweeting about Blues would use this hashtag at the game.

It then brings up all the Tweets relating to that hashtag, with a text box at the top where you tweet – it automatically adds the tweet you’ve chosen. You can reply to the tweets dropping in, set the refresh speed, change the font, and block people whose tweets you don’t feel you want to respond to. You can also set it up so that you only pull in tweets containing hashtags from people you choose – which can make it a handy tool for newsdesks on a big job, and much quicker than setting up a standard Twitter list.

Of course, some of this you can do on Twitter, but the lightweight-feel of the site makes it much more usable on the move, which is crucial for covering live events. In short, rather than just adding information to the hashtag – which is often what reporters find themselves doing – you are part of the conversation from the hashtag, all on one screen.

What’s this Social Media Advent Calendar all about then?