SCOTLAND’S freedom of information commissioner, Kevin Dunion, has appealed to journalists to take care in both asking for and in the use of material released under the powers of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act.
In an interview in The Sunday Times Scotland, on the eve of the publication of his review of 2007, Dunion is quoted, as saying: “There’s no doubt, to be frank, that journalists are the group that most disgruntle public officials. One, because of the volume of information they request.
“And two, because they get the information, decide there’s no story and make no use of it whatsoever – so the official thinks that a lot of public expense has gone into finding the information.
“At a human level, I entirely understand that. At a professional level, however, I believe that journalists are the backbone of any FOI regime.
“But I would like to see journalists making use of the information in a way that engages with the genuinely difficult dilemmas that governments face.”
APOLOGIES: the rest of this entry is unavailable, most likely because of a corrupted database.
