Freedom of Information under threat

I must have missed this but the government has made proposals to make it easier for public authorities to refuse Freedom of Information requests on cost grounds. The effect of these proposals would be to severely restrict the amount of information that could be obtained under the Act.

I only realised this when reading this weeks edition of the New Statesman. The opening lines of their leader article this week read as follows "Information is power, and any government's attitude about sharing information with the people actually says a great deal about how it views power itself, and how it views the relationship between itself and the people who elected it." These words were spoken by Tony Blair back in 1996 when in opposition.

If what he said was true then why now is his government seeking to backtrack on its commitment to freedom of information and seeking to restrict the publics right to freedom of information granted under the Freedom of Information Act passed by his own government? If you want to read more about the issues go here to the Campaign for Freedom of Information.