Freedom of Information

Freedom of Information laws exist in many countries 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.

EU

Access to documents

Article 255 of the treaty establishing the European Community, implemented through Regulation 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001, grants a right of access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents to any Union citizen and to any natural or legal person residing, or having its registered office, in a Member State.

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/
• 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

Official sites

• European Commission Openness and access to documents

Civil society sites

• AsktheEU.org Ask the EU Built by civil society organisations to help members of the public ask for the information about the European Union

Commentary and guides

• Statewatch – FOI in Europe http://www.statewatch.org/foi.htm
• Transparency International Back to the dark ages? – EU backsliding regarding access to documents and information/, Space for Transparency, Friday, 23. July 2010