Кампания за свободу информации в Великобритании

British advocacy group

The Campaign for Freedom of Information is an advocacy group that promotes and defends freedom of information in the UK. It seeks to strengthen the public's rights under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and related laws and opposes attempts to weaken them. It does this through campaigning, the publication of briefings and other reports and research. The Campaign also provides advice to the public, assistance to people challenging unreasonable refusals to disclose information and runs training courses on freedom of information. The Campaign is a not for profit company, unaffiliated to any political party, (registration number 1781526) governed by a board of non executive directors. It is funded mainly by grants from charitable foundations, donations and income from training. Maurice Frankel has been its director since 1987.

In 1996, Tony Blair presented the Campaign's annual awards, and strongly committed himself to FOI. Following Labour's election in 1997, the Campaign's chairman James Cornford was appointed a special adviser by David Clark, the cabinet minister responsible for drawing up the government's FOI proposals. However, after a well received white paper, Your Right to Know (CM 3818), Clark was relieved of this role and responsibility for FOI was moved to the Home Office under Jack Straw. The Home Office later published a draft FOI bill that was greeted with "universal hostility". The Campaign took the lead in proposing amendments to the bill during its Parliamentary passage. It played a similar role in relation to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act, which received Royal Assent in 2002. The Campaign's role in bringing about FOI was acknowledged by Straw, who as Home Secretary introduced the legislation. Straw told MPs on the Justice Committee, which was conducting post legislative scrutiny of the FOI Act, that Labour's manifesto commitment "was the product of a brilliant campaign by the Campaign for Freedom of Information". The commentator Peter Riddell wrote that the Campaign "was primarily responsible for the introduction of the legislation".

In January 2015, the Campaign celebrated its 30th anniversary with an event hosted by ARTICLE 19 at the Free Word Centre at which Ian Hislop and Des Wilson spoke. It marked the occasion by selling special edition T shirts featuring Tony Blair (who has described the introduction of FOI as one of his biggest mistakes) in a cartoon designed for it by political cartoonist Steve Bell.

The character Sir Arnold Robinson from the hit series Yes Minister accepts the chairmanship of the campaign for freedom of information, and in Yes, Prime Minister is regularly seen in this role, more often than not using it to aid Sir Humphrey in leaking material that will damage the government (once he has the assurance that the leaked information is inaccurate).