Media Thread 2020/21

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Most FOI requesters don't know what they are asking for, don't clearly define it, send the same question to 300 plus authorities whether it is applicable or not, and expect each to spend up to 18 hours pulling together the information.

Therefore one email could in theory waste 4,000 hours of public funds, and a lot of nutters use it to waste time, feed their own ego, or on fishing expeditions for stories that don't exist.

An organisation could spend 100% of its time dealing with FOI requests if there wasn't a lot of silly ones knocked back. It is open to abuse, and 16 years later I am surprised it hasn't been greatly amended.

agreed but in the instance I used there was a clear cover up from the police & a clear reason for asking. In fact he actually had more success when he disguised what he was asking for & didn’t mention he was a journalist.


Maybe ask for Dan Roans expenses?

I've never had an FOI knocked back and I’m a complete nutter!

Never in doubt ;)
 
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There will be the minimum amount of fact in that story to get it through legal, the rest will be what the sun readers want.....fantasy.
 
agreed but in the instance I used there was a clear cover up from the police & a clear reason for asking. In fact he actually had more success when he disguised what he was asking for & didn’t mention he was a journalist.


Maybe ask for Dan Roans expenses?



Never in doubt ;)

As stated by the BBC it doesn't apply to them in the same way as other public authorities, but if you ask any about individuals expenses or wages I would expect it to be knocked back on contravening data protection principles anyway, but the BBC didn't have to say that it it was outside the scope of the act anyway for them.

Normally journalists and researchers carpet bomb authorities and as they don't really know what they are asking for the information is useless, and the BBC themselves did this asking the police for football attendance figures which aren't held, although some provided estimates for example. However the data from each authority won't be comparable as there is no statutory requirement to record it, if anything at comes back.

People even request how long is spent compiling info for FOIs, which is probably like asking Pep how long he has spent asking stupid questions at press conferences, then asking him to break it down month by month over the last 10 years. So they just get "Not held".
 
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