The Guardian: FoI act has ‘hamstrung’ government
Thursday, 24 November 2011, 11:31
“Britain’s top civil servant said. Sir Gus O’Donnell told the Commons public administration select committee that [the Freedom of Information Act] had stymied full and frank discussion of options by ministers and others in government.”
Allentown Morning Call: Inside Amazon.com warehouse workers complain of brutal conditions
Thursday, 29 September 2011, 10:05
“Heat prompted complaints about working conditions at Amazon to federal regulators who monitor workplace safety. The Morning Call obtained documents regarding the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s inspection through the Freedom of Informa…
The Washington Post: Amazon story lands big for small paper
Thursday, 29 September 2011, 09:52
Erik Wemple: “There’s a good lesson for newspapers in [Pennsylvania newspaper the Morning Call's] detailed and compelling investigation [into conditions at Amazon.com’s Lehigh Valley warehouse facilities]: If t…
FT.com: Gove faces probe over private e-mails
Monday, 19 September 2011, 22:39
"As part of its inquiry, the FT saw or obtained from third parties e-mails discussing government business circulated through private accounts. It then sought disclosure of all or part of seven of them using targeted FOIA requests. The requests exp…
Telegraph: Government ‘will take 35 years to recoup tuition fee losses’
Monday, 19 September 2011, 10:25
"Official estimates suggest the amount of money loaned to students will balloon to a record level by 2047 before the Treasury starts to recoup the losses from graduates. … Estimates obtained after a Freedom of Information request show that the s…
Belfast Telegraph: FCO red-faced over briefing blunder
Thursday, 23 June 2011, 11:38
"The embarrassing blunder comes just two months after the Ministry of Defence was forced into an emergency retraction of secret information about Britain's nuclear-powered submarines it posted online. Both official documents contained sensiti…
Mail Online: Foreign Office’s leaked memo says EU chief Cathy Ashton is not up to the job
Thursday, 23 June 2011, 11:38
"The memo on the Foreign Office website was blacked out as ‘likely to prejudice relations between the United Kingdom and other EU member states’. But the words reappeared if they were copied and pasted into another file. The memo has since bee…
David Higgerson: The council which only wants one FOI request from you every 60 days
Thursday, 23 June 2011, 11:38
"Nottingham City Council [is] imposing its own cap on the number of FOI requests an individual can make before they are being ‘vexatious.’"
ProPublica: A Reader’s Guide to the (Still Coming) Sarah Palin Emails
Saturday, 11 June 2011, 10:05
"Alaska’s decision to provide only paper copies has been puzzling. While nothing in the state’s public records law requires the state to provide records in electronic form, public agencies are “encouraged” to “make information available …
Sunlight Labs: The Palin Emails and Redaction Technology
Saturday, 11 June 2011, 10:03
"Today's release of the Palin emails is prompting frustration among reporters, environmentalists and people who know how to use computers over the fact that the documents are being delivered in the form of a huge, $700+ stack of paper. … t…
Telegraph: Councils spend £100m on taxpayer-funded credit cards
Tuesday, 31 May 2011, 12:27
"This newspaper has obtained details of credit card spending at 186 councils across Britain using Freedom of Information laws. Over the past three years, documents show these councils have spent more than £40 million using the taxpayer-funded car…
WSJ.com: WSJ Jet Tracker
Thursday, 26 May 2011, 11:58
"The Wall Street Journal filed several Freedom of Information Act requests with the Federal Aviation Administration for the entire Enhanced Traffic Management System database, which contains flight records for aircraft that flew in the U.S. under …
BBC News: Local spending survey blocked by government
Thursday, 12 May 2011, 12:33
"The BBC's attempts to collate this spending data largely avoided some obstacles placed in the way of alternative research being carried out by other media. … Local Government Chronicle (LGC) was pursuing a similar survey. But it appears to…
Kent Online: Council webcasts aren’t a ratings winner
Friday, 6 May 2011, 15:48
"Audience figures for live webcasts of meetings at County Hall show many are being watched by fewer than 100 people. … An analysis of data released to the KM Group under the Freedom of Information Act shows 5,766 people watched committee broadca…
