FOI and the 91Èȱ¬: The next round
I've written on numerous occasions in the past about the 91Èȱ¬ itself and freedom of information, and this topic is likely to get a lot more media and public attention over the next few days and weeks.
That's not only due to today's speech by director general Mark Thompson about transparency and the disclosures about pay and expenses of individual 91Èȱ¬ executives.
It's also because the 91Èȱ¬ is set to appear in the High Court next week to defend its stance on refusing to publish the internal "Balen report" on Middle East coverage and some production cost information, including EastEnders.
The Balen report case will now be considered on the central issue of whether to publish after a Jarndycean through a series of legal technicalities which went all the way to the House of Lords. The report itself is now five years old.
Much media attention will also doubtless now focus on the 91Èȱ¬'s reluctance to make public, with regard to high-profile and highly-paid presenters or "talent", the same kind of information about individual pay and expenses that it has committed itself to revealing about comparatively anonymous executives.
The 91Èȱ¬'s position is that its new policy on disclosure of management pay and expenses compares well with most public authorities and is at the forefront of the media sector. Yet it is clear from the , for example, that it will still come under fierce criticism for not releasing more data.
The corporation will argue that it is now well ahead of much of the public sector in its openness on management information, while it defends strongly the confidentiality of material related to programmes or editorial content.
While the 91Èȱ¬ has some concerns over commercial considerations, its stance on FOI and programme information stems from the "derogation" or exclusion it has under the for material kept for the purposes "of journalism, art or literature".
Quite what is covered by this derogation has been a matter of contention between the 91Èȱ¬, the Information Commissioner and the Information Tribunal in various cases (such as ). The High Court may now be about to set some precedents in this field which will determine what programme-related information the 91Èȱ¬ discloses in future.
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