Miss Margate 1968
We live in interesting times for independent news media. The regional media has been in crisis for years, and councils which used to run their own newspapers have been slapped down by Eric Pickles.
There has been an explosion of local news blogs over the last several years, some of which report on the activities of their local councils. Some Councils don’t like it up ‘em. Here are three incidents from the last week or two.
In Wales Carmarthernshire Council have the police arrest blogger Jacqui Thompson (part 2, video) for daring to try and record a public meeting on a mobile phone. David Allen Green researches the details at the New Statesman, and comes to the conclusion that there may be no basis for such an arrest.
In Nottingham the City Council invoke (pdf) the “vexatious” provisions of the Freedom of Information Act to avoid giving Andy Platt of the local scrutiny blog NCCLols the information he has requested:
Wanted: NCCLols
In light of your continuing requests for information, Nottingham City Council has reached the decision that the two requests as referenced above are vexatious and in accordance with section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, we are not obliged to comply with these requests. There is no public interest test applicable to the use of section 14.
Andy gives a sharp reply:
NCC has previous form for using my blogging activities against me, you previously attempted to use it against me in my employment tribunal. These continuing efforts are a threat to my freedom of expression and a clear attempt at deflecting criticism.It’s worth a read.
(I’ll return to the NCCLols case in a separate article, since Andy has been pressurised in several different ways).
In the South East, in that part of the country even more conscious of its own identity than South Wales, Thanet, the local authority, Thanet District Council, take a refreshingly direct approach – on Monday this week they just decided to stop sending press releases to bloggers by email:
As you will no doubt be aware, local government in line with the rest of the public sector, is experiencing tough times and resources are becoming increasingly scarce. Thanet District Council is no exception to this. As a result, the council has been looking carefully at how all its resources are used. Following a review of the service offered by the council’s Press Office, it has been agreed that we will be changing our approach in the future to concentrate our resources on the mainstream media.
…
In light of this, we have reviewed the people that our press releases are being distributed to and, with the availability of RSS feeds, we are now reducing this list to cover mainstream newspapers, radio and TV only, in line with our new approach. As a result, we will be shortly removing you from the press release mailing list.
In future all requests for information from bloggers to Thanet District Council will be dealt with by the Freedom of Information team:
Our latest press releases can all be found at: http://www.thanet.gov.uk/news/latest_press_releases.aspx
If you have any requests for information in the future, please could you send these through tofoi@thanet.gov.uk as any enquiries sent through to the press office in the future will be sent on to this address for actioning.
Thanet District Council
There are a few slightly obvious questions that could perhaps be asked, especially given the “saving resources” justification for the change:
- How much extra does it cost to have another couple of dozen addresses on an email list?
- Why is it cheaper to process a request through the Freedom of Information office than the Press Office?
- Why are you not interested in locally orientated blogs some of which receive up to 20k page impressions per month?
- Is the delay of several weeks which can happen to FOI Requests anything to do with your decision?
- Are you, by any chance, trying to control the local news?
In Thanet there is more local political news in a small space than I would have thought possible. Their politics are certainly … interesting:
Last year Thanet lost a Conservative Lord Mayor after a conviction for cruelty over the death of a kitten he failed to protect from fleas. (Updated – see comment Edwin Watt-Ruffell (I kid you not) remains a Councillor.)
Also last year, a very senior Council Officer was reported by the local paper referring to the electorate as “arseholes”.
Thanet folk quizzed by papers and television have shown considerable animosity towards the Turner project.
How little their opinions matter was brought home when I lunched some years ago with a very senior council officer.
“Why,” I asked, “do you think people are so opposed to it?”
He smirked and said: “If you ask a********s, that’s the answer you would expect.”
This arrogance typifies the “we know best” stance that has underpinned the Turner cause since it reared its ugly concrete head 10 years ago.
This was repeated by troublesome local bloggers. How dare they?
And in January 2011 there was a major kerfuffle when Labour Councillor Mark Nottingham wrote a 9 page open letter to his Group Leader alleging all sorts of shenanigans in the deselection of himself as a candidate for the 2011 local elections. This brought a steaming reponse in a press release, alleging defamation and all the usual sins; it could easily have drafted by Mr Carter or Mr Fuck.
I’d say that if Thanet District Council didn’t want to have such fruity reporting, then they should focus on the overly-fruity conduct of their Councillors and staff, rather than trying to close down the 0.1% of the public who are actually taking a real interest in what the Council is doing.
One irony is that one of the blogs now closed was created purely from the Council’s Press Releases, and given search engines, blogs and Council Websites, it was likely to have been receiving a lot more attention from the general public than Thanet Council’s own version. It closed two days ago:
As the main content of this blog was Thanet district council Press releases that the council are no longer prepared to send me I have suspended posts to this blog until further notice.
There’s another irony, though. The Council had already tried to control their Councillors, and failed miserably.
Two years ago Thanet District Council tried to bring it’s own Local Councillor bloggers under some sort of control, when the Council published a 6500 word “Thanet District Council Draft/ Blogging Guidance and Protocol“.
The failure of the draft protocol to bring Councillors under control suggests that the latest “shan’t talk to bloggers” strategy has about as much success as an attempt to introduce a nudist beach on the Thames opposite the House of Commons.
Only in Thanet.
Or, as I say, in Wales; or Nottingham; or the Isle of Wight Coroner’s Court; or Nottingham Plan B. And there are plenty of others. It’s worth noting that in the Isle of Wight case, Ventnor blog is as significant a local news site as the local paper, and we should celebrate the Isle of Wight Council who permit reporting and even do their own.
In other words, this is just one more battle in the long war for a civil society with some small degree of transparency. As I say, they still don’t like it up ‘em.
Recommended Thanet sites are: Big News Margate, Thanet Online and the Thanet Star.
If you want something non-political, try Naked in Thanet (blog, Facebook), which is an excellent photographic project run by Peter Checksfield since 2005, involving photographs of real women taken all over Thanet; it is just what it says on the tin.
Photo credit for Miss Margate 1968: Captain Snaps.
Matt Wardman blogs at The Wardman Wire, on media, politics and technology, in addition to writing at the Raccoon Arms. Follow me on Twitter.
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*Not a shameless self-plug*
Go have a look at http://www.bexley-is-bonkers.co.uk
You shall find more council shenanigans.
We love Council shenanigans. Pile in, chaps and chapesses.
Apologies that I’ve edited this after publication; the site choked in the post slightly, and Anna is away for the morning.
Would love to see someone submit an FOI request for the cost of actually removing addresses from a mailing list – it strikes me that taking bloggers off that list will cost money, not save it.
Also, you cannot classify an individual as ‘vexatious’ – only the request itself. See http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/freedom_of_information/practical_application/vexatious_requests_a_short_guide.pdf among others
As an aside, happy to support anyone hitting these barriers.
Superb!
Some really interesting stuff in there. I thought we had problems with Stoke-on-Trent City Council previously but we pale in to insignificance to some of this..
In light of the #daftarrest I posted this http://michaelrawlins.co.uk/2011/06/12/curating-crimes-against-democracy/
If anyone would like to fill it in as and when required I’ll look at doing something with the data.
Cheers, Paul.
I thought I was a nerd in this stuff, and I’d never heard of the Vexatious FOI exclusion.
Hi Mike.
I thought the “Council Leader impersonating blogger” case in Stoke was one of the best belly-laughs.
Matt
This is a smashing post – thanks Anna for doing this.
I do think blogging can make a difference with local government accountability. I wonder if it will…
Heh. Me not Anna
. I’ve moved for political/media type writing As Anna has a better platform.
There’s a blurred area between blogging and ‘media’, with some ‘local blogs’ effectively having full time staff. There’s still a bit of a gap between “news” and “scrutiny”.
The last time I checked, Ventnor blog – for example – was running at 100k unique visitors a month.
The other half of the stuff is the infrastructure to support openness – think local versions of TheyWorkForYou etc, and the work that people in journalism and hyperlocal media are doing.
There are plenty of other cases around, and I’ll keep highlighting a few.
Matt
Why is there a picture of Miss Margate?
To help you concentrate.
Because she looks better than Eric Pickles, and the pic was used on one of the posts I read while researching.
If I’d had the nerve I’d have put a Naked in Thanet one on near the Town Hall, but there are too many readers at work, meaning transparent politics. Alas, none of any naked councillors, which would have been ideal.
Cheers for the write up
Apologies for the lack of name.
I work for a police force in a network investigation – related role. Weve had a couple of calls from a local council in the last year or so, asking us to investigate blogs. When we’ve looked at the sites in question, they’re perfectly reasonable blogs taking issue with council policies and decisions. No harassment, no abuse, no threats. Naturally, we tell the council concerned that we only investigate criminal activity and maybe they should think about what it is that they’re trying to use the police for.
Thanks. That’s interesting.
I trust that you’re not in Camarthenshire
Doesn’t surprise me one iota but it’s embarrassing nonetheless. Then again there are so many laws on what you can say or think they probably guess you can do the bloggers on something…
http://outspokenrabbit.blogspot.com/
Guess they’ve been listening to Andrew Marr. I shall continue to expose their antics whenever I can…
Nope
All three main political parties have the same policy on transparency and freedom of information.: “You must never question authority.”
The biggest problem they have right now is that dumbing down is not working quickly enough. Thus they must overty;y employ the tactics of the Thought Police to cover their malfeasance.
They used to say that the only thing worse than bad publicity is no publicity.
Well, Carmarthen may like to look at-
welshnewsnot.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/woman-accused-of-witchcraft-after-filming-councillors
Mike Freer, then Leader of Barnet Council, now an Honourable Member, discusses bloggers in Barnet
http://www.notthebarnettimes.co.uk/2011/02/blogging-improves-literacy.html
Mike Freer, at the time Leader of Barnet Council, now an Honourable Member, discusses bloggers in Barnet
http://www.notthebarnettimes.co.uk/2011/02/blogging-improves-literacy.html
And Patrick Butler on achievements by Barnet Bloggers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog/2011/jun/17/barnet-easy-council-scandal-puts-reforms-in-spotlight#start-of-comments
From parish to county, few people want to be a councillor (they are unpaid volunteers mainly), so you get the same retreads, good or bad. The officers are mainly operating to Westminster instructions rather than serving the community. Confidentiality = secrecy some councillors don’t know what’s going on.
Wish I knew how to set up a blog. Is it ethical for a councillor?
Simon Cooke would definitely say so – one of the best blogs around.
http://theviewfromcullingworth.blogspot.com/
Worth mentioning the South Tyneside Council silliness too
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-13588284
They’ve apparently also been after Blogspot too.
I’d draw one difference with South Tyneside – they’ve arguably got a case of defamation, leaks and so on, and the issue is whether public money should be spent in pursuit.
Whereas the others I quote are bureaucratic pressure against normal reporting.
I just had a good one. Our Town Council omitted an attachment to an Agenda item discussing the draft audit from the local library agenda pack mailing. (That was the only document omitted). On the day of the meeting, the document was not available for the public, although it was all discussed in open session.
I did an FOI requesting the missing paper. They eventually replied, telling me that as it was going to be available for public inspection by personal appointment on a future date, they weren’t going to supply it.
The future date inspection window commences several days after the date they were obliged to provide the data back to me and would involve me taking time off work to go and see it.
Unsurprisingly, I have requested a review.
They have also played the “vexatious request” card to someone else today.
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/body/morley_town_council
General note.
If anyone is serious about this transparency stuff, it’s a good idea to listen in on the MySociety public email discussion group, here:
https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public
You learn a lot by osmosis.
My company just gave up on doing any business in Thanet. They used to have a great ‘Chief Exec’, back in the early 1990s, but when he retired it just went downhill.
After several meetings with the new lot several years ago, we eventually thought that the importing of business acumen just stopped at the Wantsum Channel, and thereafter, everyone just watched Del Boy blowing up a bus all the time.
Then we had to cope with The National Trust, so it was definitely a dead hand on any further discussion.
It’s quite interesting. Local media in the traditional sense are mre or less servile due to the advertising budgets of local councils and their reliance on the press release. Thus “Councillor X in victory in the war against whatever” type headlines. Whereas bloggers can tell the unvarnished truth and these become quite worrying, thus the exclusion of information and obvious delay that FOI requests create.
Of course, kicking bloggers out of the loop and thereby generating more reserached FOI request will obvioulsy cost money. But the decision shows you are hurting them politically. Interesting also how quickly their committment to freedom of the press and free speech falls away. Hardly surprising when you consider there is some really good money to be made from the council these days.
Different intensity, but the same impulse as Stalin.
Do please try and get at least some of the facts right here!!
For starters, Edwin Watt Ruffell is no longer a councillor and the “blogging code” for councillors you refer to was a guidance document to blogging, offering sensible advice in regard to their obligations under the standards code. I should know because as the original local blogging councillor, I encouraged it because several others clearly didn’t have a clue about the laws of libel and indeed the higher standards of behaviour expected in public life.
Mark Nottingham, who had a unique blogging style of his own , chose to ignore the advice offered in the blogging code and was deselected by his own party. He is no longer a councillor
In regard to the issue of censoring bloggers this is complete rubbish and as Thanet’s original blogger and indeed blogging councillor, please read my post at
http://birchington.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-fuss-about-nothing.html
Having read your blog post, you do seem to be slightly short on commentators who agree with your notion that its ‘all a fuss about nothing’ to put it mildly – 100% disagreement with you by11 am this morning………
Thanks for the comment, Simon.
I take your point on the ‘blogging code’ (though I never used the phrase), higher standards, and so on. I’d probably have suggested something closer to the approach used by Tom Watson for the Civil Service; 6500 words does seem a little too long for people to actually remember. I’ve had that argument in other organisations and managed to reduce books to quick-reference sheets.
Certainly I’d agree on bloggers needing a working knowledge of some Defamation Law etc, just as they need a working knowledge of some journalism skills.
Thanks for the Watt-Ruffell correction. Updated.
I’d have thought that – if costs are under pressure – then voluntary coverage is to be encouraged, surely? Big Society, anyone? What would the answer be when someone – as suggested – submits an FOI asking for details of costs actually saved? I’d call the press release thing an own goal.
Institutional pressure being put on bloggers is a real issue, and there have been quite a few cases involving local authorities.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply.
Thanks for the honourable mention Anna! We aim to please!
Matt
I think the issue, speaking as a blogger, rather than as a councillor, is that we have two or three bloggers in Thanet who take themselves rather too seriously. Over th epast four years the council has been happy to engage with bloggers, myself included but some of the blogeratti wish to be treated on an equal basis with the accredited media but without agreeing to the same code of conduct. What we invariably see is “Write and be damned” or “I really hate the council” and truth is invariably the first casualty of blogging.
In this case and I have one of the more popular local weblogs, I still receive the council news as I have always done, by Twitter and by RSS now. However, I don’t recognise any divine right to call the press office and pester them for information ‘n’ times a week just because I have a blog where I like to write local news.
This is a problem for all councils I suspect. Where to draw the line. FOI requests from a handful of people here in Thanet cost the public purse a great deal of money and they keep on coming. Council officers need to do their jobs without being regularly harried by citizen journalists and I would point you at the quality of some of the blogs you have mentioned here to illustrate my argument. Of over 100 weblogs in Thanet only three have, to my knowledge objected to this change in policy.
Thanet’s decision is pure comedy. Put aside the false distinction between ‘mainstream media’ and bloggers for a moment – presumably bloggers are already on their distribution lists (if they’re doing their job properly anyway), in which case, sending releases to them takes no time or effort at all. It’s not like they have to fax them to them. In fact, removing bloggers from existing lists will take more time and effort.
I’m lucky that Lewisham Council takes an enlightened view and sends me nearly every release, as well as dealing helpfully with my enquiries.
PS – just read Simon Moore’s post. I agree that having your own website or Facebook page doesn’t give you a divine right to be dealt with on equal terms with a local newspaper, however this is not a new problem for press offices. I worked in the press office of a sports organisation 10 years ago, which had to decide whether it should accredit online media for games.
The solution then is the same as the solution now – to review the site and make a judgement call on whether it is a serious site with an audience of any scale or influence. If it is, treat it with respect. That’s your job. The same test can be applied to traditional print media too. There are plenty of shoestring newsletter operations still going – a press officer should be able to tell the difference between the good and the bad. And adding people to a distribution list takes practically no time at all.
I have had a very similar experiance. My council have used the foi act to attempt to block me, first time they withdrew, second one i am just fighting.
They also tried to take down my website for the refference to monkeys on it by writing to my hosting company and complaining to them.
My responce and challange to them is funny. My website hosting service decided to back me up after reviewing my site. http://www.tinyurl.com/34vwelx
http://www.crazycouncil.co.uk
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