I’m starting a new venture. Earlier this week I announced, alongside a new colleague, that I will be running a Freedom of Information training course for the media. The first course is taking place later this year and is being aimed at journalists and bloggers operating in the UK. It’s a slight step into the …
Myself, Press Gazette, Guido Fawkes, the BBC, and a number of other journalists were all told our requests which continue to ask questions about RIPA, are vexatious. Here is the Met’s initial response to my FOI request: Met Vexatious RIPA FOI response Internal review The Metropolitan police has decided to uphold its decision that the …
Just eight days after French Magazine Charlie Hebdo published a special edition, following attacks on its offices, UK police had been given lists of newsagents that planned to sell the magazine. Emails released by Wiltshire Police show that a list of newsagents in Wiltshire was circulated on 22nd January, three weeks after the attacks. The …
The Police National Database holds more than 15 million mugshots of people. These can all be searched using the police’s facial recognition software. Any image (whether it is a social media, or a CCTV image) can be uploaded to the system and compared against the images that are in the database. “Facial search can be …
I frequently give talks and am quoted in articles about the FOI Act. If you want me to speak at your event, a quote for an article or report, or to generally pick my brains then drop me an email: mattburgess100@gmail.com. Goldsmiths, University of London: I spoke to MA Journalism students at Goldsmiths. The talk covered …
I think it will take a little while to beat this… The chair of a House of Lords committee looking at drones was "horrified" when she recently discovered Google Maps pic.twitter.com/ic9Ronu0d6 — Matt Burgess (@mattburgess1) October 20, 2014
The Metropolitan Police’s report into the ‘Plebgate’ affair is set to be published ‘at the end of the summer’, the force has said. The report relates to the Operation Alice which is looking into the incident involving Andrew Mitchell at the gates of Downing Street in 2012. Originally the probe, from the biggest police force in …