Daily: SECRET WAR – Freedom of Information under attack

The Bunker

Podmasters

News, Politics, Society & Culture, Government

4.6 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Press freedom is under attack from Priti Patel’s draconian plans to tighten the Official Secrets Act, which would criminalise the “onward disclosure” of leaked material, putting journalists at increased risk of imprisonment. Meanwhile the Government routinely stonewalls Freedom of Information requests – making it harder to hold them to account. How did our rights to freedom of information become so eroded, with government able to skirt the law by simply blacklisting journalists? Former BBC journalist and FOI expert Martin Rosenbaum tells Alex Andreou about the need for strong FOI rights, the infamous ‘Clearing House’ where FoI requests go to die – and the dangers of “outsourcing” scrutiny of government to hard-up pressure groups. “Blair introduced the FOI Act and later said he was a complete idiot for doing so.” “There's no enthusiasm for Freedom of Information in central government at all.” “There's no law saying you have to appear on the Today Programme. But there is a law that you have to respond to an FOI request.” Presented by Alex Andreou. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	My name is Stan. I'm at. Nice to meet you. So you took up photography where? I've always loved
0:05.5	photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.
0:11.8	Well college. I loved going to college. It's good you can retry. I'm enrolled on the day course. But college?
0:13.0	I loved going to college.
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0:55.3	look after theirs with dental life. Pick up dental life in the pet food aisle. Hello and welcome to the bunker daily. I am your host, Alex Andro. We have responsibility for promoting
1:16.4	the release of government data and making the way government works more transparent. So
1:22.0	reads the Cabinet Office's own website. It may come as a surprise
1:26.1	therefore that its divisions include the infamous Clearinghouse Unit, which some
1:31.0	have accused of working actively to ensure as little data as possible,
1:36.0	or that the Cabinet Office has refused to publish documents explaining the unit's remit and work,
1:41.0	or that it was ordered to do so by a judge who added the profound lack of transparency about the operation of the Cabinet Office might appear from the material before this tribunal to extend to ministers.
1:55.2	My guest today is the perfectly transparent font of all wisdom when it comes to government
2:00.1	transparency, a former BBC journalist in politics and current affairs. and Freedom of Information Act, documenting compliance or lack of it, and even training other journalists
2:16.1	on the use of its power.
	...

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