BBC in Freedom of Information Farce

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is without doubt one of the most powerful tools at our disposal for probing the integrity of the BBC and TV Licensing.

In the past we have effectively used the legislation to force the BBC into releasing information they would otherwise have kept hidden, like the fact their mythical TV detection evidence has never been presented in open court.

The BBC don't like the Freedom of Information Act, because it allows ordinary people the chance to pry into their innermost secrets. As some of the BBC's most sordid secrets have recently been exposed to public scrutiny, it should come as no surprise that they want to keep the remaining latches on Pandora's Box firmly shut.

For the past six years the BBC has been desperately trying to keep one of its biggest secrets hidden from the public gaze - the names of those attending a controversial seminar on climate change at the start of 2006.

Blogger Tony Newbery used the Freedom of Information Act to ask the BBC about the "Climate Change - the Challenge to Broadcasting" seminar, which convinced the BBC to abandon its impartiality on the subject of climate change. The BBC, in a further demonstration of its contempt to the legislation, refused to answer Tony's request on the basis that it held the information for the purposes of journalism, art or literature.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds later an Information Tribunal has just ruled in favour of the BBC, confirming that their refusal was legally sound. It is, however, very much a Pyrrhic victory for the national broadcaster, as someone else has disclosed the information they sought desperately to keep hidden.

A few day's ago blogger Maurizio Morabito found the information the BBC has spent thousands defending archived on the Wayback Machine. In a sick, but incredibly humorous, twist of fate the BBC's legal muscle and expense has been completely wasted, as the information was out there in the public domain all along.

A complete list of those that attended the "Climate Change - the Challenge to Broadcasting" seminar at BBC Television Centre in White City London on 26 January 2006 is available to view here. [Original link broken. Please see alternative at foot of page]

Read and digest the names carefully, enjoying the fact that the BBC never wanted you to see them.

Over the next few months there'll be a lot more uncomfortable reading for the BBC.

Edit (9/6/13): Checking the links above I notice that the embarrassing Climate Change attendance list, which the BBC sought so desperately to hide, has somehow disappeared from the Internet Archive. Call me suspicious, but I have never known the Internet Archive to unarchive content in the past, so maybe the BBC exerted some pressure on them? Fortunately I saved a copy, which you can view here.