Freedom of Information and Data Protection

Data protection and confidentiality laws are designed to safeguard confidential information.
For journalists, there are 3 areas of concern:

• Revealing state secrets or 'official' secrets
• Revealing commercial secrets
• Revealing facts about a person they would have expected to remain private

Official Secrets Act protects state secrets (e.g. military or intelligence matters) and breaches are a criminal offence. However, the act is rarely used as juries can be reluctant to convict 'whistleblowers' or people who can be seen as 'victims' of the state.
Commercial confidentiality is normally protected by the contract of employment; staff won't do things detrimental to their employer's interests e.g. reveal financial information beneficial to competitors. However, this interest must always be balanced against the public interest which may dictate that it should be published.
Personal confidences or privacy are protected under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
With newsworthy confidential information, journalists (and lawyers) must decide to either:

• Risk an injunction by seeking a response to the allegation

or

• Publish material and risk legal action for breach of confidence and possibly defamation if there is inaccuracy.

The Freedom of Information Act gives you the legal right of access to any piece of information held by most public authorities, unless there is a valid reason. The act covers around 130,000 bodies and around 100,000 requests are made every year costing in the region of £34 million however, only around 12% of these requests are made by journalists.
"Any person making a request for information to a public body is entitled... to have that information communicated to him."
However, access to information can be refused if:

• Costs come to more than £600 (£450 for smaller authorities)
• It is covered by absolute exemption (e.g. court records, security services) - they have no duty to confirm or deny that any information exists
• It is covered by qualified exemption and the balance of public favour does not favour disclosure (i.e. the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information)

There are 23 types of qualified exemption including:

• Likely to jeopardise national security
• Likely to prejudice defence or international relations
• Intended for future publication
• Prejudices the economic interests of the UK
• Might prejudice law enforcement
• Communication with the Royal family

FOI requests should be made in writing, including email. The public authority must respond within 20 days which can go up to 40 days if they need to consider public interest.
If they deny access to information:

• Internal review
• Information Commissioner
• Information Tribunal
• High Court

Useful resources:

• FOI masterclass - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPp_HEFJoHE
• List of authorities covered - http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.dca.gov.uk/foi/yourRights/publicauthorities.htm
• Previous requests - https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/

Something is in the public interest if it:

• promotes accountability and transparency
• furthers the understanding of/participation in public debate of issues of the day
• allows individuals and companies to understand decisions made by public authorities affecting their lives
• brings to light information affecting public health and public safety