Tag: Freedom of Information
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Leah Trueblood: An Injustice in the Law of Information Rights: Tortoise Media Ltd v Conservative Party and Unionist Party
In the summer of 2022, during the election process which Liz Truss would eventually win, Tortoise Media wrote to the Conservative Party’s CEO, Darren Mott, asking nine questions. Considering Tortoise Media had just successfully registered a tortoise called Archie, two overseas nationals, and one fictional person called ‘Margaret Roberts’ to vote for Britain’s next prime…
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Richard Clayton QC: New Directions for Article 10: Strasbourg Reverses the Supreme Court in Kennedy
The Supreme Court decision in Kennedy v Charity Commission was striking from many points of view. Mr Kennedy was a journalist frustrated by the way the Commission handled his allegations concerning George Galloway MP’s controversial Iraq charity, the Miriam Appeal. He applied for disclosure of documents under the Freedom of Information Act, arguing that a…
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Judith Bannister: The Last Word on the Public Interest in FOI: Australia and the United Kingdom Compared
Freedom of information (FOI) reform has often been slow in Australia. There was a decade (and a change of government) between Gough Whitlam’s 1972 election promise of freedom of information and the passing of the Commonwealth’s Freedom of Information Act in 1982. There were 15 years between the recommendation of the Australian Law Reform Commission and Administrative Review Council to create…
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Greg Weeks: Comment on Australia: A Disappointing Backward Step in Information Policy
Australia’s Coalition government handed down its first Budget on 13 May 2014, which has since proved controversial in several respects. The Budget’s impact on groups such as the elderly, the unemployed, the disabled and University students, as well as on indigenous programs and the environment has occupied much of the commentary and has additionally generated…
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Richard Clayton: The Curious Case of Kennedy v Charity Commission
On 26 March 2014 the Supreme Court gave a lengthy judgment in Kennedy v Charity Commission [2014] UKSC 20, running to 248 paragraphs. The Supreme Court decision is full of surprises. The Court decided to depart from the arguments of the parties- the majority insisted that common law rights rather than the Human Rights Act…