Freedom of Information

The freedom of information act or FOI act is one of the greatest tools ever handed to the journalist for weeding out stories. The FOI was created as an act by Parliament to introduce a right to know.
The basic principle of the FOI is:

"Any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled to have that information communicated to him."

Requests must be made in writing and are completely free.

The FOI was brought in by Tony Blair and New Labour, although Blair regrets bringing it in as he believes Parliament can no longer have conversations without it being brought into publication by the FOI act and for journalists to use it in stories.
It isn't just the Government who are covered by FOI. But there are over 130,000 public bodies covered by the act for example the NHS, board of education, etc.
Over 100,000 requests are made each year, with only about 12% being from journalists. Once a request is made the body has 20 days to respond, but they do not have to release the information if the it is going to cost the 0ver £600. The information becomes EXEMPT from being public knowledge.

There are two different types of expemtions...
Absolute and Qualified.

Absolute Exemptions
These have no public interest test attached to them the information is simply unattainable. Requests are absolute exemptions if the information:
+ Is attainable elsewhere.
+ Is given in confidence.
+ Is obtained from court records (contempt)
+ Which the applicant could obtain under the Data Protection Act 1998; or where release would breach the data protection principles.
+ Which would breach contempt of court or human rights act.
+ Where disclosure would disrupt the conduct of public affairs.
+ Relating to secutrity matters.

Qualified Exemptions
These are exemptions that are tested against the public interest test. Basically the authority the request is made to must decide whether information is first exempt, then they must decide whether to disclose the information based on whether the public would desire that information to be disclosed.
Qualified exemptions can be divided into two further categories - Harmful (likely to cause harm) and class (information to do with particular classes).

Class-based exemptions
Information intended for future publication
Information is exempt if required for the purpose of safeguarding national security
Information held for purposes of investigations and proceedings conducted by public authorities
Information relating to the formation of government policy, ministerial communications, advice from government legal officers, and the operation of any ministerial private office
Information that relates to communications with members of the Royal family.
Prevents overlap between FoI Act and regulations requiring disclosure of environmental information.
Information covered by professional legal privilege
Trade secrets

Harm-based exemptions
Under these exemptions the exemption applies (subject to the public interest test) if complying with the duty under s.1 would or would be likely to:

Prejudice international relations
Prejudice relations between any administration in the United Kingdom and any other such administration
Prejudice the economic interests of the UK
Prejudice law enforcement
Prejudice the auditing functions of any public authorities
In the reasonable opinion of a qualified person: prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs; prejudice collective responsibility; or inhibit the free and frank provision of advice or exchange of views
Endanger physical or mental health, or endanger the safety of the individual
Prejudice commercial interests

Personally I think society benefits from the FOI act. As a journalist having the responsibilty to be the eyes and ears of the public it enables us to make things known without being fed selective bits of information from and interviewee (ie a press officer.) The freedom of information act has unveiled many secrets that people have tried to keep hidden. For instance, one of the biggest examples I could use is the scandal of Government expenses. It was unveiled that members of the Government were listing things under expenses that shouldn't have been (new houses, duck ponds these are just examples). All I can say is this would be beneficial to the general public to know.
Just because certain bodies don't want you to know... doesn't mean you shouldn't.