Media Law Lecture 8 - Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act is like gold for Journalists. It allows you request information from over 100,000 public authorities on a topic of your choice. Once you've chosen the story you wish to investigate, the national information commissioner who oversees the process must process the information within the 20 days time limit.

However, before journalists get too excited, you have to bare in mind that there is a long list of exemptions, and if your request requires a money to gain this information, then you will be charged a fee of up to £100. Information that is exempt means that a public body does not have to issue you with the information, although there is the option to appeal. FOIA does not apply to personal questions, for instance you cannot ask "How much do you earn?" you should adopt the approach of using figures such as "How many people earn over £20,000?" as this is not a direct personal inquest.  

After watching a masterclass taken by Matthew Davis, I learnt the framework of getting information:

1. Immerse yourself into the language, then transfer this back into normal speech.

2. Keep it simple, do not over complicate it.

3. Include comparative statistics, for instance against previous years.

4. Stick to a topic that you may have experience of already

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = one very spicy story