Freedom of Information

Freedom of Information laws exist in many countires and are a useful tool in Investigative Research. this page provides a guide to how to use the various pieces of legislation. It is not a guide to any specific Act or its use in practice, though separate pages on specific laws may give this guidance.

US

• US Department of State http://www.state.gov/m/a/ips/ U.S. Department of State Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)] site designed to assist you in making a request for records controlled by the U.S. Department of State.
• CIA FOIA Electronic Reading Room
• US Department of Justice Other Federal Agencies' FOIA Web Sites
• Wikipedia Freedom of Information Act (United States)

Resources

UK

• What Do They Know: Make or explore Freedom of Information requests http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/
• "Your right to know” Heather Brooke’s FOIA advice site. http://www.yrtk.org
• Campaign for Freedom of Information http://www.cfoi.org.uk/
• Open Secrets A blog about freedom of information by Martin Rosenbaum http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/opensecrets/

Government/Official sites

• Ministry of Defence Freedom of Information - Information request
• National Archives Freedom of Information
• Office of Public Sector Information http://www.opsi.gov.uk/

Information Commissioner

• Information Commissioner’s Office (England and Wales) http://www.ico.gov.uk/

Scotland

• Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/

EU

• European Commission Openness and access to documents

• Statewatch – FOI in Europe http://www.statewatch.org/foi.htm