Tom Morrison returns with his quarterly review of the world of information law
I mentioned in my first column that one of the consequences of a public authority complying with a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FIA 2000) can be that the media acquires some embarrassing information (NLJ, 20 May 2011, p 698). In the months that have followed it has been certain media outlets themselves that have suffered the consequences of disclosure as new revelations concerning inappropriate use of private investigators have come to light. Whilst some of the recent detail is disturbing, the fact of newspapers using private investigators to uncover information is not new. Neither is the fact that some of the methods used by those private investigators have been questionable at best.
Operation Motorman
Following an investigation code-named Operation Motorman the then information commissioner, Richard Thomas, highlighted the issues in his 2006 reports to Parliament What Price Privacy and What Price Privacy Now?. One of his aims was to expose the illicit trade in personal data that had existed for some time and which he
