Freedom of Information isn’t in a good place in Britain. This week, openDemocracy revealed how an ‘Orwellian’ Cabinet Office unit has been coordinating FOI responses across Whitehall, and screening journalists’ requests in ways that experts say could be breaking the law.
The Freedom of Information ‘Clearing House’ even instructs departments on how to respond to requests – effectively centralising control over what information is released to the public in Michael Gove’s Cabinet Office.
But the “sinister” ‘Clearing House’ is not the only problem. As revealed in a new report about Freedom of Information, ‘Art of Darkness’, that was published by openDemocracy this week, there are other ways in which our government is undermining the Freedom of Information Act, which was brought in to ensure that the public have “right of access” to information held by public authorities.
