大象传媒

Martin,

What, do you reckon, are the chances of obtaining the following information through a FOI Request to the 大象传媒.

Q. Provision of the statistics as to how many times (that) any of the processes referred to in the Agreement between the 大象传媒 & HM's Secretary of State for National Heritage (dated 25/1/96), Section 8. DEFENCE AND EMERGENCY ARRANGEMENTS (copy available here) have been enacted. Not the details of the processes themselves (i.e the broadcasting or non-broadcasting of items requested by a Government Minister), but just the statistics.

After all, the 大象传媒 when sending such an announcement or other matter may at its discretion announce or refrain from announcing that it is sent at the request of a named Minister. The release of this information is therefore at the 大象传媒's discretion.

What do you reckon? Has anyone tried to garner this info before?

You might want to cover the government's use of Crown Copyright to stifle the Freedom of Information act when you get back. See the open democracy article on how the government is using Crown Copyright to prevent Craig Murray, former ambassador to Usbekistan, from publishing FOI information on his website. Pretty soon they might close down your blog too!

Hello Martin

I鈥檓 a bit confused by how the FOI applies to the 大象传媒.

The 大象传媒 say 鈥渢he Act does not apply to information held for the purposes of creating the 大象传媒鈥檚 output (TV, radio, online etc), or information that supports and is closely associated with these creative activities.鈥�

That鈥檚 not what the FOI says but that鈥檚 by the by. What I don鈥檛 understand is what does the FOI Act actually apply to??? Surely everything the 大象传媒 do is associated with creating the 大象传媒鈥檚 output?

Iver -
Sorry for delay in responding. I'm not aware of the 大象传媒 having been asked for or disclosed this information, but then I don't deal with incoming FOI requests.
The 大象传媒 publishes a selection of its disclosures at /foi/docs/freedom_of_information.shtml, so it's worth checking that.
I can't say what the chances are of any information being disclosed, since it's not my responsibility, but if you want to pursue it you should email foi@bbc.co.uk with your request.

Jenny -
Again, apologies for delay in responding.
What the FOI Act says is that the 大象传媒 is only covered by FOI "in respect of information held for purposes other than those of journalism, art or literature". The 大象传媒's view of what this means is as you yourself quote in your comment. Doubtless this will be tested by certain cases in the future.
You can see the sort of information which the 大象传媒 has disclosed under FOI on the disclosures log at /foi/docs/freedom_of_information.shtml. There's plenty of it.