Top 10 most read FOI posts of 2011

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to conversations on this blog during 2011, challenging, debating and informing my understanding of FOI and how it should be used by journalists. Here are the 10 FOI-related posts which generated the highest number of page impressions: 1. How Jack the Ripper is helping to shape FOI rules When is

FOI: More from Kirklees Council, where the council leader signs off FOI requests

Remember the Huddersfield Examiner’s great work in exposing the leader of Kirklees Council, who insists on signing off many FOI responses himself? In some cases, proposed responses drawn up by an FOI officer – the council’s expert – were altered and changed by the council leader. There was an interesting new twist this week. Originally,

FOI: Why it pays to keep asking, and why councils should think before saying no

Kirklees Council in Huddersfield has been widely praised for streaming its meetings online. However, when it comes to interrogating the information given at those meetings, it’s a different story – and one which demonstrates why journalists shouldn’t take no for an answer. On February 23, Kirklees Council – the authority whose leader likes to sign

Meet the council leader who insists on vetting FOI responses

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