Inspiration
Britain: Should police pay phone companies for investigations?
LONDON - DECEMBER 7TH 2008 - "Millions of pounds a year of taxpayer's money are paid by police to mobile phone companies in the course of criminal investigations," according to the BBC, who is investigating the question using Freedom of Information legislation.
Scotland: Drug use highest among Scottish soldiers
BRUSSELS - NOVEMBER 30TH 2008 - Drug-taking among soldiers in Scottish battalions is the highest in the British Army, according to figures obtained by BBC Scotland.
Netherlands: Integration effort failed
BRUSSELS - 25TH OF NOVEMBER 2008 - Millions have been spent on integrating roma in a community of Utrecht in the Netherlands. However a wob-request by the RTL-tv shows, that the money has not lead to improvements, and unemployment, absenteeism at school and criminality is still high.
EU: More then 800.000 euros of easy money revealed by wob-request
BRUSSELS - 20TH OF OCTOBER 2008 - About 60 MEPs have signed up for daily allowances of almost 300 euro for a day of meetings, when no meetings are held. This was revealed by a recent wob-request.
Secret documents on side-effects wobbed out – online now
COPENHAGEN - 23. OCTOBER 2008 - An international team from Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark started to wob out previously secret documents on side effects last year. After intense additional research they finalised their series of articles today, and the previously secret reports are now published on the internet to provide this important information to the public.
Sweden: Wob, politics and subsidies - EU-Commission rejects access to files on media monopoly
BRUSSELS - 25. SEPTEMBER 2008 - The European Commission has turned down a wob-request concerning a case between Sweden and the Commission about state subsidies and media diversity. The Commission considers it an ongoing case and thus rejects acces - a notion that is completely unknown in Sweden. And also a notion, that the Commission wants to fix in the forthcoming new law about access to information in the EU.
Britain: Innocent – but still on DNA database
LIVERPOOL - 22 SEPTEMBER 2008 - Almost one in 10 people on Merseyside has their genetic profile stored on the national DNA database, according to information released to the Daily Post under the Freedom of Information Act. (source: Liverpool Daily Post) >>
Flanders, Denmark, Netherlands: School reports made public
All school reports in Flanders were released to journalists at Belgian daily De Standaard according to the wob of the Flemish community in spring 2007. The Flemish thus follow examples in Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Netherlands: AOb puts financial data of schools online
AMSTERDAM - 7 April 2008 - Ninety per cent of all primary schools is very prosperous. The poverty feeling that frequently lives on primary schools among parents, teachers and sometimes even Executive Boards, seems tào be out of place. Nearly all school governing boards have strong reserves. That results from an analysis of the financial data of 1200 school governing boards in the Netherlands. Have a look a the data per governing board at www.hoerijkismijnschoolbestuur.nl (Source: AOb - Algemene Onderwijsbond) >>
Britain: Police spindoctors cost 50 mio € a year
BRUSSELS - 26th of May 2008 - British police spends around 50 million € on PR each year, new wob-results by Heather Brooke and The Times show.
Britain: New kitchens and clean windows
BRUSSELS - May 26th 2008 - A recent wob-success revealed tax-payed expenses of the members of the British Parliament. Previous prime minister Tony Blair and current prime minister Gordon Brown both got installed new kitchens, and one MP had her windows cleaned not less than 18 times in one year, according to a report in Daily Mail.
Britain: Thieves stealing from Police
Ireland: TV-costs for coverage of US-elections just kept growing
RTE's US election coverage costs just keep on growing, writes the Irish Independent. Initially it cost €27,000 to send 12 RTE employees to America for the 'Super Tuesday' primaries. Later it appeared, that the costs where €62,000. Then it turned out, that the total costs were even higher. The information emerged in response to a Freedom of Information request from retired army officer William Phillips, who was was irked by RTE presenters' comments on the cost of sending Government ministers abroad for St Patrick's Day, when the station had at least 13 staff in the US for the presidential primaries last February.
Scotland: University admissions are biased towards poor students
Scots university-admissions are biased towards students from deprived background according to Times Online. Scotland's elite universities have overhauled their admissions procedures in an attempt to socially engineer their intake by favouring students with lower exam grades if they come from poor families. The policies show attempts at positive discrimination in favour of those from deprived backgrounds as universities try to curb the domination of higher education by the best-performing state and independent schools. Files obtained by The Sunday Times under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that Edinburgh has operated a points system since 2004, rewarding applicants from state comprehensives with poor academic records and those who are the first in their family to attend university.
Scotland: Death patients showed up when wobbed
Dead patients live to tell the tale, according to the Scottish Freedom of Information weblog. Patients in five English hospitals have been incorrectly diagnosed as being dead over the past five years, the BBC has discovered. The information was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Donal MacIntyre programme.
Britain: Nuclear weapon plant closed due to security problems
Work on Britain's Trident nuclear warhead programme was suspended for much of the last year due to wide-ranging safety fears, it has been disclosed, according to the Scottish Freedom of Information blog. Following suspension of work at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) Burghfield in Berkshire last July, when flooding increased the risk of fire at the plant, concerns about on-site safety became so acute that a decision was taken in the autumn to stop all live nuclear work on missile warheads. Letters marked 'restricted', but released under the Freedom of Information Act, highlight the nuclear safety watchdog's concerns (the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII)) that deadlines for improving safety at the plant were not being met.
Denmark: Million crown salary to spindoctor
BRUSSELS - May 15th 2008 - The spindoctor of the Danish liberal prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, receives a million-crown salary, a wobrequest revealed. Opposition requires liberal party to pay for themselves.
Denmark: Buy a professor
BRUSSELS - 8th of May 2008 - External funding for Copenhagen University was connected to the request of promoting two researchers to professors, a wob-request has revealed.
Follow a case step by step through the EU system from application to final result.
MEP per diems, autumn 2008, application by Dutch researcher Ries Baeten.
Follow a case step by step through the German system from application to final result.
Farmsubsidy, application spring 2005 by Brigitte Alfter, published with Hans-Martin Tillack in Stern.
Britain: Why does Gordon Browns cleaner cost so much?
Why did Gordon Browns cleaner cost £4,981, when Tony Blairs only cost £1,331? The Guardian got access to how British MPs spend their additional cost allowance covering practical costs like cleaning or double housekeeping. Have a peek behind Westminsters closed doors.
Germany: Henri-Nannen jury recognises wob-story
BRUSSELS - 22/3/08 - When one of the most prestigious German journalism-awards, the Henri-Nannen-Award, published this years nominees this week, a wob-story was mentioned among the ones close to nomination. German journalists are not used to wobbing, and the data behind the story constitute a breakthrough. The story is another one in the European series about farmsubsidy-recipients. See all the documents on the wobsite.
Britain: Facebook – the new battleground in Iraq and Afghanistan
LONDON - 8. February 2008 - Social networking sites present a PR problem for the Army. Robert Verkaik, Law Editor, examines newly released papers showing how the generals intend to tackle the new media.
Germany: Breakthrough in access to farmsubsidy-data
Britain, EU: British government in close contact with large tele-companies
BRUSSELS - 28. October 2007 - The European Union tried to support consumers by capping the maximum roaming costs for using mobile phones. However the British government had a close contact with large tele-companies. The information was revealed through wob-requests and published in articles by journalist Dominic Kennedy at The Times.
Britain, EU: See how Dominic Kennedy/Times got roaming background out
LONDON - 25. October 2007 - British officials had a close contact with large tele companies, when the EU tried to limit roaming costs for consumers. Journalist at The Times, Dominic Kennedy, was so kind to share his method with wobbing.eu.
Britain: See all good wob-stories by the Guardian
The Guardian-colleagues use the wob and give an overview over their stories by subject.
Britain: Get inspired by BBCs wob-stories
Corruption in jails? Funds unused? Se all the good stories by the BBC using the wob.
Britain: How much do police informers get?
LONDON - 23. July 2007 - The BBC has urged police forces across Britain to reveal how much public money they have paid to informers. Applications were filed after a man jailed for life for two murders was revealed to be on the police's payroll.
Belgium: Weapon exports may not be kept secret
BRUSSELS - 18. May 2007 - Reports about weapon exports from Belgium are subject to freedom of information, a Belgian court ruled in May 2007. Report by newsmagazine Knack.
Bulgaria: Information about Bulgaria with detour to US
SOFIA - 19. September 2005 - Bulgarian journalist Alexenia Dimitrova was curious about the Bulgarian secret services during the times of the Cold War. In Bulgaria archives were closed at the time. However a stay in the US gave her the idea to seek access via the US Freedom of Information Act - and she got access to declassified information of great interest to her.
Britain: Wob-findings may cause strike
LONDON - 6. January 2008 - British daily newspaper discovered business-class lifestyle of BBC-chief by wobbing the BBC. Staff members are expected to be furious, as the news come at a time, when 1800 jobs are threatened by cut-backs. Union considers strike on January 23rd.
Bulgaria: Journalists active in running cases
Bulgarian journalists are very active users of the wob. With the support of the Bulgarian Access to Information Programme they have run a series of court cases to get information - and very often they have been successful. Below is a selection of ongoing cases (as of January 2008) and successful cases.
Romania, US: Collateral damage
In the war on terrorism vast sums are spent, however human right records are ignored. Lobbying is key to the flows of the funding, an international team of journalists working has revealed. One of their tools was the use of freedom of information legislation - amongst others in Romania and the US.
Britain: They work for you
Using open sources, They Work For You is a website is a great appetizer on how to use public data.
Britain, Scotland, environmental journalist blogging about the FOI
Rob Edwards is a journalist working on environmental issues, mostly in Scotland. Part of his blog is about using the Freedom of Information Act.
Se all his recent requests.
EU: New data out about fishsubsidies
BRUSSELS - 4th of October 2007 - New data about fishsubsidies have been released to an NGO. This gives precedence so others - among them journalists - can get access to these data aswell. Previously similar data were released to a journalist - see examples here.
Denmark: Wobbing the royal family
Most Danes love their royal family. However when divorced and now ex-princess Alex was going to remarry and thus would loose the royal economic benefits, Danish press was less careful. Wobbing showed, how the ex-princess to be spent public money on her new wedding.
Denmark: Life FOI-application for European data held by the US
BRUSSELS - 16. September 2007 - Following the yearlong quarrels between EU, the US and not least data-protectors and civil liberties activists about European flight-passenger data, a Danish newspaper-blog now runs a life application for European PNR-data with the US authorities.
Northern Ireland: Historical army documents accessed through FOI
An Northern Irish Human Rights group obtained the British Army's own assessment of internment in 1971.
Europe: Half of the EU-budget goes to....
Farmsubsidy.org is a network of journalists, academics and NGOs with the common aim to get access to information on who get's what of EU's agricultural funding, which amounts to almost half of the EU budget. Applications have been filed in numerous member states aswell as on EU-level.
Germany: Dinner with the weapon industry
German weapon industry has invited officials of the German government and armed forces to numerous receptions and dinners, German magazine Stern revealed in January 2007 after intense use of the new German wob.
United Kingdom: Get a copy of your public ‘performance’ using the Freedom Of Information act or WOB
MANCHESTER - 11th of DECEMBER 2008 - You probably know that CCTV cameras everywhere on the streets, buses, stations, in shops and banks and so on, are watching you. Especially in Britain, where there are an estimated 13 million CCTV cameras. But you might not know that you can actually get a copy of these video records. By using the Freedom Of Information act or WOB, you can legally ask for any data – including the aforementioned video records – stored on you. (source: UK Telegraph) >>
Britain: MPs' expenses: your questions answered
LONDON - MAY 11th 2009 - By Channel 4 News: Jon Snow puts questions from the general public and comments to a panel of MPs about the expenses they're allowed to claim. Watch the episode.
BULGARIA: Daily 24 Casa publishes files about royal family
BRUSSELS - 3 / 8 / 2009 - Bulgarian journalist gets access to the files about the Bulgarian royal family in the pre-1989 archives of the secret service.
Videos: Dutch-speaking students dive into WOB legislation
BRUSSELS - 24 / 8 / 2009 - Marco de Lange wrote his dissertation about the WOB for his bachelor in journalism at the Dutch University College Ede. He looks at the history and how it is being used in Belgium and the Netherlands. He also did a WOB/FOIA-request himself. See video - interview below. Nils Dumortier, student of the Flemish University College Artevelde, made a documentary about the WOB legislation in Belgium: How transparent is Belgium after the WOB/FOIA introduction 15 years ago?
EU: When even the date is secret
BRUSSELS – 12 / 9 / 2009 - The European Medicines Agency has been criticised for not being open enough. Now it has sent its future transparency policy into a public hearing. Comments possible until September 25th 2009.
Risc companies and terrorism
BRUSSELS – 14 / 01 / 2010 – Risc companies have to be known, argues Danish wob-site Aabenhedstinget and fights to get out the list of companies of high risc. One of the arguments against disclosure was that such companies could be targets of terrorism.
Wobbing Europe is run by the Pascal Decroos Fund
Wobbing Europe is officially sponsored by the Flemish Government