Inside FOI Journalism

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) is an essential tool for the journalist seeking to hold public institutions to account. But for those handling FOI requests from journalists, the challenge is to balance minimising the resource burden on the organisation with maintaining openness and transparency. This requires a good understanding of the journalist’s motivation, tactics and pressures.In this episode we are joined by Martin Rosenbaum. Martin spent 16 years at the BBC as the organisation’s leading specialist in using FOI for journalism. He is the author of Freedom of Information: A Practical Guidebook - a comprehensive, hands-on guide that explains the law, the process, and the tactics for using FOI effectively.We talk about:How journalists use FOI to uncover the truth and inform the publicThe tactics that make the difference between a successful request and a dead endHow FOI has evolved since its introduction And what information professionals can learn from the media’s use of this powerful toolIf you like this podcast, please listen to Episode 3 where Maurice Frenkel of the Campaign for Freedom of Information (CFOI) reflects on 20 years of the Freedom of Information Act.Useful LinksPhaselawMartin’s BlogFreedom of Information: A Practical Guidebook Act Now FOI Blogs This podcast is sponsored by Phaselaw - a purpose-built solution for document disclosures, like subject access requests and FOI requests. Instead of redacting PDFs one by one, or forcing litigation software to do a job it wasn't designed for, with Phaselaw you get collection, review, and redaction in one workflow. Teams across the World are using it to cut response times from weeks to days.For Guardians of Data listeners, Phaselaw is offering a two-month free trial; run it on live requests, see what it does to your backlog, decide from there. No card, no commitment.