A Herald Sun journalist has lodged a Freedom of Information request with the ABC for all emails and other correspondence between me, other Crikey staff and Mark Scott and the ABC’s public relations people.
Freedom of information
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: FOI: to know what’s right to know
Crikey readers have their say.
Friday arvo document dumps subvert FOI reform: editors
Friday afternoon has become the time du jour for government departments to publish potentially damaging FOI documents.
Hartigan gives the government an FOI report card: so where’s his?
News Ltd CEO John Hartigan has given the Rudd government a glowing report card on its press freedom efforts so far. But what grade would we give News Limited itself? asks Margaret Simons.
The secret life of secret-holders WikiLeaks
Whistleblower website WikiLeaks has exploded onto the world’s media stage after releasing classified US military videos online last week. So just what — or who — is WikiLeaks? Where is it getting this stuff? And how does it get away with it?
Is the Right to Know Coalition ready for the last rites?
Is the Right To Know Coalition, launched with such a fanfare by our major media companies just three years ago, now running dead?
The Pentagon’s war on WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks has long been pissing off governments by obtaining and publishing their secret and sensitive documents online. And as this secret Pentagon report [PDF] reveals, it hasn’t gone un-noticed.
revealed 
Apple’s secret iPhone Developer Agreement
The previously secret agreement all Apple app developers are required to sign has been made public through a very clever legal loophole (the NASA app meant it was FOI-able). Read it in all its super-strict glory.
revealed 
Who gets to meet David Bartlett?
After a long FOI battle, Tasmanian Times has its hands on Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett’s appointments diary. Read all the hot dates from little black book.
FOI reform may undermine open government
Expect some drama as the Freedom of Information reform Bill is debated in federal parliament, since an amendment that would fatally undermine the move to more open government has been slipped in.
revealed 
Read the FBI’s Michael Jackson files
The FBI has released 300-odd pages of its files on Michael Jackson. Read them all — or just get the highlights here.
Just who is a “journalist” in Australia?
Changes to Australia’s Freedom of Information legislation next year will make it easier for journalists to access government documents — but just who does the government consider a “journalist”? asks Peter Timmins. Do Australia’s bloggers also have a Right to Know?
Millions of missing Bush emails uncovered
Twenty-two million emails from the Bush White House have been found and restored, despite the administration’s claims none were missing from the archives. It raises the question: what else has fallen through the cracks?
Big Brother 2.0
Governments and intelligence agencies are increasingly monitoring social media services like Twitter and Facebook to catch tax cheats, digital pirates and political protesters, according to the NY Times. Is it time to ask just who your friends and followers are?
Qld Hansard a closed book to OpenAustralia
Why won’t the Queensland Parliament allow OpenAustralia to publish the Queensland State Parliamentary Hansards? Crikey intern Michelle Loh investigates.
Public servants serve the public interest, period
Public servants have a direct responsibility to act in the public interest in all aspects of their work, writes former public service commissioner Andrew Podger.
Faulkner flicks FOI exclusivity; bunfight begins!
The new era of transparency and openness sought by the media (and most prominently by the News Ltd dominated Right To Know Coalition) comes with an unexpected complication: now everyone can play.
TechCrunch release confidential Twitter documents
Hundreds of pages of confidential internal documents from Twitter have been leaked to TechCrunch, which they claim “rhave so much news value that we think it’s appropriate to publish them.” And so they have.
The BBC’s big spend
The BBC has published five years’ worth of expense claims made by its executive board members, totalling £363,963.83 and including a £100 bottle of champagne and a £500 handbag.
5000 back journalist over IRA interviews
5000 people, including politicians, celebrities and journalists, have signed a petition backing journalist Suzanne Breen for refusing to hand over information about the murder of two British soldiers by the Real IRA.
Guy Rundle: The deep wormy rot of English politics
The improvised nature of British political institutions has always been something that anglophiles have celebrated. The downside is that it gives you plenty of places to hide.
ProPublica frees ethics information for the Internet age
ProPublica has taken it upon itself to obtain and scrutinise the Obama administration members’ financial and ethical disclosure forms.
SSCI torture narrative
The US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has released a narrative of the general history of torture under the Bush Administration.
Media freedom hampered by media irresponsibility
An audit of the freedom of information available to the Australian media, released today, makes a powerful argument that free speech in Australia is being subtly whittled away, writes Denis Muller.
