Thread by @Williamrt

Journalists and researchers have spoken out over a behind-the-scenes legal threat to bar people living overseas from using the UK Freedom of Information Act. #FOIA #Journalism @benjameslucas @SMaurizi @EmmanFre @manihiki @ComputerWeekly

A tribunal is questioning whether people living outside the UK have legal rights to use the Freedom of Information Act. #FOIA #Journalism

For the past 15 years since the Freedom of Information Act came into force, there has been no geographic barrier to people using the UK’s Freedom of Information Act. #FOIA #Journalism

It has been used by UK citizens living abroad and citizens of other countries to ask for information from government departments that might impact people wherever they live. #FOIA #Journalism

Under the UK FOIA anyone has the right to ask for information. That includes people living abroad, non-UK citizens, journalists, lobby groups and commercial organisations. #FOIA #Journalism

This right is now being questioned by the first-tier tribunal. It has stayed 16 FOIA appeals on the grounds that they have been made by people living outside the UK, even though they are British Citizens living overseas. #FOIA #Journalism

Ben Lucas a financial crime correspondent filed a freedom of information request in 2017 and continued to pursue the request when he took up a new post for his company in Hong Kong. @benjameslucas

Ben is a British passport holder. The tribunal is questioning whether he can continue with his appeal because he is now working and living overseas. #FOIA #Journalism

Emmanuel Freudenthal, a French investigative journalist living in Kenya has used the UK’s Freedom of Information Act to find out how Ebola contaminated blood samples came to be sent from Sierra Leone to the UK. @EmmanFre #FOIA

He has never had a problem using the Freedom of Information Act in the past. Now his appeal has been stayed because he is not a UK citizen. #FOIA #Journalism

Stefania Maurizi, an Italian investigative journalist, won a successful tribunal case against the Metropolitan Police Service, which required it to confirm that it shared information of WikiLeaks staff with the US. @SMaurizi #Assange #FOIA #Journalism

The tribunal has heard several appeals from Maurizi living in Italy but now it is now questioning whether it is able to hear her case against the MPS when she is outside the UK. #FOIA #Journalism

Why is the FOIA being restricted in this way?

Read the full story here:
computerweekly.com/news/252494083…