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Shaft? You’re damn right
There was a heartening story in the Leicester Mercury a few days ago. Journalist David MacLean praised Lynn Wyeth, Leicester City Council’s Head of Information Governance for her promotion of...
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The Right to Unknown Information
It is important to note that there is no requirement in the FOIA that those intending to make requests for information have any prior knowledge of the information they are requesting. These words of...
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The Fog of War (on Drugs)
A recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Nottinghamshire police by a local newspaper resulted in the press headline Police winning war on production of cannabis in county The request was...
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ICO – no Code of Practice for data protection and the press
On the 12th of August the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) announced that, following a period of consultation, it would not – contrary to previously-stated intentions – be issuing a Code of...
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Leveson, LJ – defender of the press
Lord Justice Leveson, new President of the Queen’s Bench Division, is not the most popular judge amongst journalists and press barons. So, in the week before the Privy Council meets to decide which...
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THIS is the purpose of subject access requests
In a recent blogpost the rather excellent Bilal Ghafoor (who goes by the handle of “FOIKid”, although I note he’s now extended this to “FOI (and DP) Kid”, evidently having rather belatedly discovered...
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ICO must disclose Motorman journalists’ names
The ICO has been ordered to disclose the names of some of the journalists referred to in “What Price Privacy” as having engaged the services of rogue private investigator Steve Whittamore In April 2006...
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For Shame
A newspaper says police are “naming and shaming” drivers who have been charged with, but not convicted, of drink-driving offences. Sussex Police say they are merely “naming” the drivers, but do not...
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Why no prison sentences for misuse of medical data?
So, the government, roused from its torpor by the public outrage at the care.data proposals, and the apparent sale of 47 million patient records to actuaries, is said to be proposing, as a form of...
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Data Protection for Baddies
Should Chris Packham’s admirable attempts to expose the cruelties of hunting in Malta be restrained by data protection law? And who is protected by the data protection exemption for journalism? I tend...
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Brooks Newmark, the press, and “the other woman”
UPDATE: 30.09.14 Sunday Mirror editor Lloyd Embley is reported by the BBC and other media outlets to have apologised for the use of women’s photos (it transpires that two women’s images appropriated),...
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Are we all journalists?
The ICO has said that Global Witness can claim the data protection exemption for journalism, regarding their investigations in BSGR. This fascinating case continues to raise difficult and important...
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Is an FOI request from an investigative journalist ever vexatious?
Last week, in the Court of Appeal, the indefatigable, if rather hyperbolic, Mr Dransfield was trying to convince three judges that his request, made long ago, to Devon County Council, for information...
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FOI, data protection and rogue landlords
On 23rd July the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH), in conjunction with the Guardian, published a database of landlords who have been convicted of offences under the Housing Act 2004....
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ICO discloses names of Operation Motorman journalists
In August this year the Upper Tribunal dismissed an appeal by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) of a prior ruling that he must disclose the names of certain journalists who appeared on a list...
View ArticleBoris Johnson and GDPR
Might there have been a breach of data protection law in the recording, apparently by neighbours, of incidents at Boris Johnson’s home, and the passing of the recording to the media and the police?...
View ArticleReporter uses FOI to lift anonymity order
Here’s a remarkable example of good use of Freedom of Information (FOI) law. Tanya Fowles, a reporter covering courts in Northern Ireland, has successfully applied to lift a reporting restriction...
View ArticleOpen Letter to new ICO
I was delighted recently to be invited by OpenDemocracy to sign an open letter to John Edwards, new Information Commissioner, calling for more to be done to regulate FOI effectively. I’ve written many...
View ArticleDrones and freedom of expression
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides that everyone has the (qualified) right to freedom of expression, which includes the freedom to receive and impart information. And...
View ArticleFOI and government/ministerial WhatsApps
[reposted from LinkedIn] An important Information Tribunal (T) judgment on a FOIA request, by Times journalist George Greenwood, to DHSC for gov-related correspondence between Matt Hancock (MH) and...
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