This is the kind of story that exposes the inadequacy of the current operation of the Freedom of Information Act before it is further neutered by government restrictions on its use. The Western Morning News (WMN), the Plymouth-based daily, filed a request with Post Office Ltd following last year's government announcement that 2,500 post office branches were facing closure.
The company's initial reply refused to release details on the basis that until a period of consultation had been concluded it was "not in the public interest to speculate on the future of individual branches at this stage". Then it stated that the information requested was "exempt" under two sections of the FoI Act, one of which states that disclosing information might "prejudice the commercial interests of Post Office Ltd and any sub-postmasters involved".
This reply upset the paper, of course. The WMN (circ. 43,876) believes the Post Office is hiding behind the exemption clauses to conceal the fact that a list of threatened post offices exists. The paper has been supporting the National Federation of Subpostmasters in its campaign to safeguard the future of the network and has been encouraging people to use their local post offices. The reply also upset local politicians, including the Conservative MP for Torridge and West Devon, Geoffrey Cox, and the Liberal-Democrat MP for North Cornwall, Dan Rogerson. Cox called the claimed exemption "strange".
Strange indeed. It is not, however, surprising. Public bodies have begun making a habit of claiming exemptions in order to avoid scrunity of their activities, one of the reasons that the FoI Act requires sharper teeth. Instead, the government wishes to choke off its use by journalists. So I urge everyone to sign up to the Press Gazette petition in order to show the government just how important freedom of information is to journalists and, of course, to our readers.
And I will be expecting Mr Cox and Mr Rogerson to speak up when the FoI Act comes up for discussion in the Commons tomorrow during an adjournment debate in the name of Don Touhig, a former Labour defence minister. One ray of hope is that proposed changes to the Act will, evidently, not be rushed through.
