The Freedom of Information Act was established in 2005 and gives the citizens of the United Kingdom access to information and data produced by organisations within the public sector when requested. McNae's states that they are around 100,000 major and minors bodies within the public sector that are covered by the act, they include:
* National Government, departments and ministries e.g. The office of the Prime Minister, the Home office
* The House of Commons, the House of Lords and the national assemblies of Northern Ireland and Wales
* The armed forces.
* Local government authorities
* Universities, colleges and schools e.g. The University of Winchester
You have the right to request information from any of these bodies within the public sector by writing to the agencies requesting the information. However, there are several restrictions that can allow a public sector body to refuse any access to information being released.
The main operation of the act is to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it hold the specified information that you have requested. If this is the case then the information will then be communicated to you. The local authority must respond to your request within 20 working days, either by supplying the requested information or explaining why it cannot be supplied.
For example, you can request information from The University of Winchester on the number of students that have dropped out of their course and have discontinued their studies at the university. However, you cannot obtain information about an individual person, only a group, this is because of confidentiality. Confidentiality is where you need to obtain the individuals permission to have access to and obtain confidential information about them. This is because once the information is giving by the person, the public sector authority have entered into a contract and therefore the information cannot be released.
This is also the case for matters of official secrecy, meaning that information held about defence plans within the Ministry of Defence will not be divulged. It is key as journalists that we stay away from any information that can affect national security. I will move onto the exception of this rule later on (please do not read on if you are a politician in the American or British government).
Another exemption to the FOIA is what is defined as information. Information can only be asked for if it has been recorded and must count as information that is available to the public. If the information is recorded then public sector authorities have the right to charge individuals to obtain the requested information. The charge is normally around £450 and will cover the costs of obtaining the information from files and then forwarding the information to the individual.
Every public sector must ensure that that have a freedom of information officer who are responsible to reply to every letter that is sent to the public sector authority requesting specific information. If your request for information is turned down by the information office, then there is two stages of appeal where you can go to contest the rejection.
The first stage is appealing to the Information Commissioner and if the Information Commissioner turns down your request you can then the decision to the Information Tribunal. However, it is not just individual that can appeal to the Information Tribunal. If the Information Commissioner has accepted that the information is in the public interest and demands that the information should be released, then the public sector authority can appeal to the Information Tribunal.
There are cases where the Freedom of information act has been mistaken to the point where Britain has nearly reached the point of World War Three. In 2006, the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen brought his alter-ego Borat to the big screen. The film depicts Borat as a reporter from Kazakhstan, but his depiction of the character caused uproar throughout the Asian nation with some diplomats believing that the film had been used as a propaganda video against the Kazakhstan people by the British. None of the information in the film was true, apart from the map showing where Kazakhstan is located.
This strained relation between the two nations to the point that Kazakhstan were threatening legal action and potential warfare against Britain. It expresses that public culture can influence what is deemed to be seen as information and the freedom that the media can express in influencing opinions and perceptions within society. Lets just all hope for the sake of the British nation that Sacha Baron Cohen does not think about realising Borat 2 any time soon.
The FOIA has been used to try and expose the political secrets of not just the American government, but many others. The website WikiLeaks has released various sets of information from the American governments, which has been described as possible being a serious leak to national security on a global scale. The website was closed down by the American government, however the information has been sold to various number of British and international newspapers. Julian Assange, the owner of WikiLeaks is facing criminal charges due to sexual assault claims in Sweden, however he face even worse claims due to the importance of national security on a global scale. The latest news about the action being taken against WikiLeaks can be found at this link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/06/wikileaks-julian-assange-police
As a journalist you must ensure that you never take no for a answer and keep rephrasing your request until you get the information you need. Just ensure that if you obtain information that if it is of great importance or of national security that you dispose of the information or just say that you found it in the good old skip.
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