Media News - Tuesday, October 07, 2008

UK: Freedom of Information Act generates 1,000 stories in two years

The Freedom of Information Act has led to the media publishing more than 1,000 stories based on disclosures by public authorities in just two years, according to a new report. The disclosures, made under the UK and Scottish legislation, demonstrated the enormous range of information being released, said the report, published by the Campaign for Freedom of Information. 'They include significant disclosures about the Iraq conflict, the possible cause of Gulf war syndrome, assaults on public service staff, the state of civil service morale, compensation paid to victims of medical accidents, schools' efforts to inflate their exam results, hospital techniques for deflating waiting lists, the universities teetering on the edge of financial collapse, police officers with criminal records, government efforts to encourage gambling, lobbying by multinational oil, pharmaceutical and food companies, nuclear safety and other hazards, crimes committed by offenders on parole, unpublicised prison escapes, the expansion of the national DNA database and innumerable reports about high expenses claims and dubious public spending,' said the report, researched by Jon Matthew and Robin Robinson. The disclosures also cast new light on the government's approach to many issues, as well as identifying shortcomings in public service delivery, highlighting other problems which had not been addressed, and illustrating where policies had succeeded. In 2006 the Government attempted to impose restrictions on the use of the Freedom of Information Act, arguing that journalists were making excessive use of it, and that a large number of requests for information were trivial. But those proposals were dropped when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister. (Press Gazette)

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