FOI: The council which wants the power to determine what is ‘lazy journalism.’ Really

If you believed many of the public sector submissions to the Government’s Freedom of Information review, this country is blessed with a public sector which is passionate about transparency but gets bogged down by FOI being abused by people who just want to waste time. And, you know, we’ve got budget cuts, so something needs

Digital Journalism trends in 2016: The battle for public information at the heart of all reporting, regardless of platform

This is the second in a series of posts between now and the end of the year looking at key themes I think will emerge during the course of 2016. The first, about social journalism, can be found here. The danger in writing posts predicting trends for 2016 is that it can become a wish

FOI Friday: The Tories who clearly love the Freedom of Information Act – and 9 other stories made possible by FOI this week

You don’t need Freedom of Information to expose a politician as a hypocrite. The Daily Mail proved that when it took a matter of hours to call out Chris Grayling after he attempted to ‘shame’ the media for using FOI to get stories! Grayling, it turns out, was a serial user of FOI when in

FOI Friday: Why FOI beats open data and 9 other stories made possible this week thanks to FOI

The FOI request about theft of petrol from petrol stations is hardly a new one, but that doesn’t alter the fact it sums up why FOI trumps the principle of open data, from a journalistic perspective at least. The St Helen’s Reporter used FOI to find out how many petrol drive-offs there had been. Answer

The two Tories showing it’s the Freedom in FOI – and the press in general – they really can’t stand

If ever there was any doubt about the motives behind the Conservatives’ review of Freedom Of Information, leader of the Commons Chris Grayling has surely set the record straight. Speaking in the Commons this week, he said: The irony is that the person who said that he regretted the Freedom of Information Act 2000 most

Freedom of Information faces its biggest threat yet – here’s why

It shouldn’t be a surprise that a Government is planning to deliver what could be a devastating blow to the Freedom of Information Act. It probably should be a surprise, however, that it has taken so long. This lunchtime, the Government, still in the first flush of ‘oh, so we really are in charge, aren’t

FOI Friday: Prisoner complaints, police redundancies, thefts from bars, dangerous dogs and ‘kebab crimes’

‘Kebab crimes’ in Scarborough < Scarborough News There’s a saying that a pint and a fight are the ingredients to a great British night out, but an investigation has unearthed the shocking crimes committed in Scarborough’s pizza shops and curry houses by rowdy revellers after they’ve sank one too many. Scarborough’s ‘kebab crimes’ include bloody

FOI Friday: 34 years on the run, social media at councils, snooping councils and overtime for detectives

The burglar on the run for 34 years < Belfast Telegraph Thousands of suspected criminals are dodging justice after disappearing while on bail in Northern Ireland, it can be revealed. Some of them are still on the run more than three decades after they vanished. The suspects are linked to almost 13,000 crimes, including dozens

FOI Friday: Jollies in Cannes, guilty police, empty homes, naughty soldiers and road rage incidents

So does a trip to MIPIM pay off? < Brixton Buzz £20,000 was taken by Lambeth Council from four property developers to help fund the trip to Cannes by four council employees. A Freedom of Information Request shows that although “conversations took place” at MIPIM World back in March, no actual deals were reached following

FOI: Thinking beyond the obvious when asking for data

Last week, many newspapers and other media outlets carried stories triggered by and FOI which asked for details of the crimes committed by children. Nothing unusual in that, given how common the ‘x number of 10 year olds arrested for x’ which have been made possible by FOI over the years. But this particular FOI