(C) OpenDemocracy This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Cabinet Office excludes journalists from its FOI group [1] [] Date: 2024-04 Journalists and campaign organisations have been excluded from a Freedom of Information group set up by the Cabinet Office, openDemocracy can reveal. A new ‘information rights user group’ founded by the government to look at transparency failures, including those exposed by openDemocracy, met for the first time last week. But the Cabinet Office has come under fire over its failure to invite those who use Freedom of Information (FOI) on a daily basis, such as journalists and pressure groups. It has also been criticised for a lack of transparency around the group’s membership and the topics discussed at its first meeting. Experts and campaigners have called it a “missed opportunity” and urged the Cabinet Office to extend the membership to include those with “lived experience” of the government’s “obfuscation, delay and stone-walling”. Get our free Daily Email Get one whole story, direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up now Martin Rosenbaum, who spent 16 years as the BBC’s leading FOI specialist, was surprised by the lack of journalists on the government's group. Speaking to openDemocracy, Rosenbaum said: “I find it very strange and disappointing, given this is an open government initiative, that there was no public announcement about the group’s membership and its first meeting.” openDemocracy, which has long exposed FOI failings within central government and published two major reports on FOI in 2020 and 2021, was also not invited. Michelle Stanistreet, the general secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), said: “Journalists frequently rely on FOI findings to inform their reporting on public interest stories, holding government and public bodies to account through scrutiny. Any work led by the Cabinet Office on this policy area should therefore reflect their views and capture experiences to support understanding. “The NUJ is keen to engage with government and is well-placed to represent journalists on the newly formed Information rights user group, providing crucial insight and perspectives that differ from industry bodies and voices it understands are already stakeholders on the group.” The government’s FOI record The information rights user group was set up as part of a commitment to improving transparency in public life, with the government’s FOI record having long been criticised. Recently, The Guardian revealed that Rishi Sunak’s government placed a record number of blocks on FOI requests in its first three months. openDemocracy regularly exposes the failings of FOI within government departments, and revealed the existence of the controversial Cabinet Office Clearing House, which led to an inquiry by Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee into the way the Cabinet Office deals with FOI requests. Last April, the committee published a highly critical report after receiving “evidence of poor FOI administration”. The group’s members include the Information Commissioner’s Office – the watchdog of information rights in the public interest – as well as local authorities, academics and the Institute for Government think tank. The Cabinet Office invited trade bodies the News Media Association and The Society of Editors to its information rights user group, but has been criticised for not including any working journalists who specialise in obtaining information under the FOI Act. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/freedom-of-information/journalists-excluded-from-cabinet-office-freedom-of-information-group/ Published and (C) by OpenDemocracy Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/