The Cabinet Office is routinely obstructing freedom of information requests and has a blacklist of journalists working for @guardian and @DailyMirror, @openDemocracy reports. As I discovered last month when inquiring about Lord Lebedev .. theguardian.com/politics/2020/…
I discovered the House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC) - which scrutinises proposed peers - hadn't published minutes for over a year. I asked to see 2020 minutes, including from March when Lebedev's peerage was discussed - and rejected on national security grounds..
On 16 October 2020 the Commission wrote back, rejecting my FoI application: "We have concluded that the public interest is best served by withholding the information," it said, adding it intended to publish the minutes in the "near future". I appealed ..
On 12 November HOLAC rejected my appeal. In the meantime it published the relevant minutes, below. @openDemocracy has raised an important issue. Michael Gove's Cabinet Office is routinely blocking legit FoI requests from reporters it regards as "hostile" lordsappointments.independent.gov.uk/commissionrepo…
Here's the piece I was working on when I made my unsuccessful FoI request. Boris #Johnson attended Lebedev's Xmas 2017 party. The future PM was spotted in the upstairs party room - decorated with #Stalin portrait - where class-A drugs were later consumed theguardian.com/politics/2020/…
About to talk to @suhasinih - diplomatic editor of @the_hindu - about #Kremlin influence in US/UK and my new book Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and #Russia's Remarking of the West. Part of the @JaipurLitFest in NYC, beginning 9.15am EST, 2.15pm London jlflitfest.org/new-york
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