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REPRESENTATIVES OF THE media today appealed to the government to commit to a real review of the Freedom of Information legislation.
The main focus for representatives appearing before the Finance Committee today was the the €15 charge for requests which they all said should be dropped.
Emma O’Kelly, RTÉ’s Education Correspondent said that even a small fee “goes against the spirit of the legislation which should be for openness and transparency”.
Seamus Dooley of the National Union of Journalists told the committee that the idea of a registered user fee would be considered by the NUJ whereby journalists would pay a set annual fee instead of individual payments for each request.
Dooley went on to say that there was not one body he could think of that should not be covered by the law. “That doesn’t mean you can’t have protection,” he said. “There will be circumstances where exclusion is appropriate but that should not be the norm.”
Richard Boyd Barrett said he was “worried that the issue of commercial sensitivity is being used as a catch all phrase for stopping people getting information that is very much in the public interest”, particularly when it comes to bodies like NAMA.
Journalist Ken Foxe said that reporters tend to “tailor requests” so that they are sending them to bodies they know will cooperate and that they will get valuable information from.
RTÉ journalist Colm O Mongain told the committee that the same request could be sent to two different bodies and a reporter could get back documents with two completely different approaches.
“It could be that one department takes a more stringent approach due to the volume or the ethos in that department,” he said.
On the issue of payment for request, the committee chair Ciaran Lynch questioned whether there was a justification for a fee based on the fact that the media are working on a business model and profiting from the information.
The committee will now discuss the findings of today’s meetings and make recommendations on whether the legislation should be ammended.
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Surely someone is getting paid to copy all these documents and to make a decision on the request. A fair fee should be payable to cover such costs. All taxpayers pay for services such as getting birth certificates etc. why should media be any different? Otherwise they get would their stories for free at taxpayers expense and then make money selling the story revealed. Makes no sense .
I can get FOI from the UK where I pay no tax, no so here. The fees are a very deliberate disincentive.
Freedom of information is an extension of freedom of speech, as recognized in international law.
Here is the thestory.ie Oireachtas submission
http://thestory.ie/2013/02/01/submission-to-oireachtas-committee-on-foi-amendment/
Only six or pages, worth a read to anyone.
I think it’s probably worth pointing out that while the media might be the most regular users of FOI requests, they’re not the only ones.
In fact, you’d probably find more ordinary punters willing to send in requests and encourage greater transparency in the workings of the state if they didn’t have to get a cheque or postal order for €15 to do so.
You’re not wrong there Gavin.
The idea seems to be to keep joe soap out of the loop, then complain that the public are apathetic.
And who came up with the postal order bit, that’s just weird.
THE cover up still goes on
It is in digital format. However, retrieving it in a meaningful way is far from simple since it is exists in badly designed and disconnected systems. There have been many botched attempts at correcting this. Botched due to both complete lack of understanding the scale of the problem and the unwillingness (for many reasons) of those “inside” to help alleviate the problem.
The reason the government charge is because they don’t want the information out there in the first place and by putting a fee on it it puts most people off sending in requests.
This info is owned by the citizenry and not just taxpayers….it should be free to access
How can this service possibly be made free? Imagine all the loopers sending in spurious requests just for the hell of it. That, and why should one sector of society (the meeja) be subsidised by the taxpayer, and not any other? Maybe we should call for sports photographers to get free travel so they can go to sports events around the country? Meeja doing itself proud today, as always. I’ve often said that too many people do useless degrees, end up in meeja or “writing” blogs, being “politics junkies” (please!), and here’s just more evidence of that.
Loopers are citizens, though. But voluminous, vexatious or manifestly unreasonable requests can be rejected under Section 10.
All “loopers” should have access to all government information and access should be free since they are already paying for it. Besides, its what one does with the information that is key.
An uninformed or worse, misinformed citizenry is only a good thing for a government. The reverse is the ideal for society. Our elected representatives should be kept on their toes at all times.
The NUJ position is there should be no fees – we did not say it should be free only for journalists. If fees are retained there should be a public interest test.
Personal information (which account for 70pc of requests) can be secured without any fee.
. In calculating costs to the State you need to consider the money saved as a result of FOI requests which have revealed waste.
Stop the public gaining any information on back room deals between politicians, business donations and other shady practices.
have your say