View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
January 18, 2007updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Eastern Daily Press: It’s our duty to fight FoI curbs

By Press Gazette

Return to Press Gazette's FoI campaign home page

Assistant editor on the Eastern Daily Press Paul Durrant believes every regional newspaper editor has a duty to get their local MPs to oppose the Government’s proposals to curb the Act.

He said: “With the combined clout of the regional media, we should be able to get 400 MPs on our side, sign an EDM and show parliamentary support. “The regional press has a great relationship with their MPs and need to write to and lobby their own MPs.

“The Eastern Daily Press has used FoI time and again to uncover stories that otherwise would have been left untold. It’s a system which is working for us. Hiding behind the new cost regulations would severely curtail what we believe is an important principle of openness and transparency.

“I’ve tried to encourage all our journalists to use the Act as an important part of our armoury. We have a standard letter that can be adapted for all types of requests which highlights the importance of the public interest test. We have used it successfully on numerous occasions.

“We submit around two requests a month at the moment and they are not frivolous requests. We are not serial abusers of the system — I don’t think there are many serial abusers in the industry. You’ve always got, in editor’s letters terms, the green ink brigade, who probably are the serial abusers and the Government perhaps should be addressing them.

“But there should not be a system where bona fide journalists are restricted to a quota system. There may be some months where we have no requests but we may have other months where we have half a dozen key issues that need pursuing.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

“If that makes us a serial user or abuser, then that’s tough.” The EDP used FoI to produced figures that showed more than 1,600 suspected criminals had jumped bail in East Anglia, 100 of them Category A prisoners. A separate request showed there were 4,500 incidents in which police were called to schools in East Anglia last year, sometimes up to 12 times a day. It led to calls for better security at school gates in the region.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network