The freedom of the press to freely make enquiries into local council decisions has been reassured by the Minister responsible – not only that, but he re-enforced it by saying, “Greater local accountability is essential.”
Happily, Eric Pickles, the Conservative Communities and Local Government Minister responsible has halted the recent shameful attempts of Hampshire County Council to charge media outlets for their previously-free FoI requests.
A bit of history
This all blew up after The Portsmouth News and Hold The Front Page reported the comments of Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, who commented on Hampshire CC plans, saying, “It’s ludicrous. Hampshire County Council should remember this information doesn’t belong to them, it belongs to the public.”
The report had a comment from Maurice Frankel, chairman of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, “We have no real objection to straightforward commercial requests carrying a charge. But newspapers are an important point of scrutiny of local authorities.
“Their work is an important part of transparent government. We’d definitely oppose such a measure.”
Next, Roy Greenslade ran an article in The Guardian, which has today led to the interesting result from the top man who can rule on such things, Eric Pickles.
Minister: “Greater local accountability is essential
His clear view, “If town halls want to reduce the amount they spend on responding to freedom of information requests they should consider making the information freely available in the first place.”
His quote finished with, “Greater local accountability is essential to accompany the greater powers and freedoms that the new Government is giving to local government.”
Can’t be clearer than that can it?
Isle of Wight Council and their FoI games
VentnorBlog has many times had its legitimate requests for information knocked over to FoI requests, often when we couldn’t see the justification for it.
You may well remember when IWC Chief Exec, Steve Beynon, stonewalled VB when we asked him six pretty-standard journalistic questions about the VBG Lift.
He refused to answer them, kicking them into the long grass of FoI, forcing the answers to be delivered after the Delegated Decision was made (which, as it has turned out, was subsequently reviewed last night). A cheap trick we felt.
These were questions that we firmly believed should never have gone to FoI.
Our judgment was further backed up when the Guardian picked up on others’ reporting of the situation, who also questioned the legitimacy of Steve Beynon’s actions. (BTW – the comments at the end of the article are well worth reading :) ).
Shame on Hampshire County Council
Very serious question marks have to be placed on Hampshire County Council for even attempting to question if news outlets should be able to freely question the internal workings of a county council.
Councillor Colin Davidovitz, cabinet member for communications and efficiency at the Hampshire CC attempted to defend the council’s move, including saying, “I see nothing wrong with charging organisations who benefit from the information we give them, for the service we provide. Why should taxpayers pay for newspapers to benefit?”
Public information
It’s amazing that someone voted into office by the public could be so disconnected from the reality of his position. It’s not for him to decide who should and shouldn’t have free access to this information. It’s not his information to decide about – it’s public information, about the spending of public money, not his.
His insult is not just aimed at local media who are trying to get to the bottom of stories, but to every member of the public.
“Shame them into complying with the law”
Near the end of his article today, Roy Greenslade, after referring to the previous Stonewalling, he concludes his article,
“Editors who are frustrated by stone-walling councils should use the Pickles statement to shame them into complying with the law, not only in letter, but in spirit.”
How about it Steve Beynon?
Thanks to Simon Johnston for the heads up
Image: Richard ‘Ten Speed’ Heaven under CC BY 2.0
