Al-Jazeera won’t get its memo

Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 23:20

Al-Jazeera has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Cabinet Office, asking for a transcript of the 2004 meeting between George Bush and Tony Blair during which Bush allegedly suggested bombing the station’s headquarters in Qatar.

When somebody beat them to this approach by nearly a month, the response was predictable — although the Cabinet Office admitted holding the requested information, they refused disclosure based on the section 27 (detrimental to international relations) exemption to FOIA.

But Newsnight tonight reported that a Downing Street spokesman responded to questions about al-Jazeera’s request by denying that the document contained any reference to bombing al-Jazeera.

I suspect that when it comes 19 working days from now, the formal FOIA response will look a lot like the one Steve Wood received last month (PDF).

Entry Filed under: Freedom of Information, Journalism, Military, Miscellanea, Politics, Qatar, Special Relationships, UK, USA, al-Jazeera