WRITTEN ON August 3rd, 2006 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Uncategorized

The excellent Douwe Korff points out the bizarre interpretation the Treasury Solicitor puts on the “freedom” part of FoI in a threatening letter to former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray:

blah blah blah posh references to Her Majesty…even if a document is released under the Data Protection Act or Freedom of Information Act that does not entitle you to make further reproductions of that document by, for example, putting them on your website….The copyright remains enforceable…blah blah blah/threaten/threaten/threaten…High Court…costs…blah blah blah…substantial…signed Gareth Buttrill, agent of gloom (who seems to work for someone called Adam Chapman who seems to work for someone called David Dunleavy

This tribe has plainly gone mad. Once upon a time they said “remember we’re the servants not the masters” then they ran off with the entire nation’s pension resources and now they issue threatening letters telling people who speak out in conscience against state atrocities not to use information they’re obliged to give out to anyone who asks for it. As Durham Rambler comments on Craig’s site

Let’s get this straight:
1. You obtained these documents as a result of a Freedom of Information request to the UK government.
2. You are not permitted to republish them on this website, according to the government.
3. On the other hand, you are free to publish the text of your FoI requests, since you are the author, and you could release them into the public domain.
4. Others could then submit FoI requests in the same terms that you did.
5. HM Government should then send the same information in response to that FoI request.
6. This is, however, a lot more time-consuming than allowing you to publish in the first place.
7. Am I missing something here?

The Treasury Solicitor’s slogan Law at the Heart of Government is sounding like a typo for Flaw at the Heart of Darkness. Butt out, Buttrill! (Or have I got this all wrong?)

It’s a tribal trait to behave vindictively against whistleblowers. This is a job for

Maurice Frankel’s excellent Campaign for the Freedom of Information (whose job is far from done) and for

Public Concern at Work

and for all of us. I suggest the best way to protest this specific action is to buy plenty of copies of Craig Murray’s intriguing-sounding book Murder in Samarkand. * cheers Douwe