LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th February, 2021) Current and former editors of UK national newspapers have signed a letter calling for an urgent parliamentary investigation into the government's handling of the Freedom of Information Act, following reports that journalists are being "blacklisted" by a secretive unit inside the Cabinet Office run by minister Michael Gove, openDemocracy, a UK-based political website funded by US billionaire George Soros, has reported.
In November, openDemocracy revealed that the UK Cabinet Office was running a secretive unit that advises other government departments on how to handle Freedom of Information requests and block journalists and researchers who invoke the act passed in 2000 to have access to sensitive information.
The organization then said that requests that were deemed to be sensitive were monitored and input by a unit called the "Clearing House."
"We believe that there are now strong grounds for a review of the UK government's treatment of and policies for dealing with Freedom of Information requests, and would urge the minister to address these concerns," the open letter addressed to legislators William Wragg and Julian Knight, who chair the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee and the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, respectively, said.
Among the more than 90 signatories of the open letter coordinated by openDemocracy are the editors of The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, Financial Times and Daily Mirror, as well as Paul Dacre, chief executive of Associated Newspapers, Alan Rusbridger, former editor-in-chief of The Guardian, and Lionel Barber, former editor of the Financial Times.
The general secretary of the UK National Union of Journalists, Michelle Stanistreet, also backed the request, Sarah Kavanagh
NUJ senior campaigns and communications officer confirmed to Sputnik.
"In 2016 the government tried to clamp down on Freedom of Information and they failed: there was a public outcry at the time and the plans were dropped. Now it's clear they just changed their tactics. The intended outcome is the same," Stanistreet was quoted by Kavanagh as saying.
The letter urged Parliament to open an inquiry into the operation of the Clearing House and investigate whether journalists and other users of the FIA are being monitored and/or blacklisted, and consider allowing users to appeal to the Information Commissioner's Office in case government's ministers refuse to respond to a request within the requisite time period.
They also advocate for recognizing the national interest of creating an independent and fully funded regulator of information rights.
