Friday, October 29, 2004

A freedom curtailed by codes

Article about FOI in Wales, offers cricism of the Welsh Assembly Code of Practice, based on one case rather than an overview of the code as a whole which has many positive aspects (e.g publication of cabinet minutes)

ICWales

"I invoked the Code when I was seeking disclosure of a letter of complaint sent to BBC Wales by Tim Hartley, the Assembly's then head of news. A reliable source had told us that the letter, which took issue with the BBC's coverage of an Objective One story, was well over the top and could be compared with UK Government bullying of the BBC over its coverage of the Iraq war....Even though the First Minister eventually agreed to release the letter, he only did so once the "dialogue" was over and after all relevant individuals had signified their approval"

Read the National Assembly For Wales Code Of Practice On Public Access To Information
Second Edition (2001)




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