A council which wants the right to reject FoI requests on the grounds of ‘lazy journalism’ has been attacked for its “appalling” attitude to openness.

Nick Turner, president of the Society of Editors and digital strategy manager for the CN Group, has voiced his outrage over calls from Cumbria County Council to restrict the operation of the Freedom of Information Act.

The authority is one of dozens who have responded to the call for evidence by the government-appointed commission currently looking into FoI legislation.

Its submission stated: “Councils should be enabled to refuse media requests that could be considered as ‘lazy journalism’ that will clearly not inform genuine investigative journalism or that will not result in news that is in the public interest.”

It sparked a strongly-worded attack from Nick, pictured above, who was responsible for launching the SoE’s HandsOffFoI campaign in conjunction with HTFP and Press Gazette earlier this autumn.

Nick told HTFP:  “I am shocked at the suggestion that Cumbria County Council is in any way fit to make decisions about what journalism is in the public interest. I suppose I should not be surprised because in over 20 years of dealing with the council I have found them to have an appalling attitude to keeping the public informed.

“I have been in employment tribunals when they have sought orders to cover up allegations of bullying, I have been in the high court to defeat the council’s attempt to keep the name of a mother who killed her son secret, and of course it is the county council which has been behind the suggestion that children’s names should be kept out of harmless reports about sport and school activities.

“The council also has a press office which takes an eternity to answer routine questions about issues such as superfast broadband or charging points for electric cars so they are the last people I would trust to decide what information should be in the public domain.”

Trinity Mirror’s digital publishing director David Higgerson also took up the issue in a post on his personal blog, describing Cumbria’s submission as a “horrifying example of public sector arrogance.”

David cited another case, reported by HTFP earlier this year, in which the council attempted to ‘kill’ a North West Evening Mail story about the hiring of a £700-a-day spin doctor.

The Mail broke the news in October 2014 that the authority had appointed a new ‘local government reputation manager’ at a time when unprecedented budget cuts meant 1,800 staff could be axed, and emails later revealed following an FoI request laid bare the tactics used by press officers in their attempts to stop the story appearing.

Commented David: “No wonder Cumbria County Council wants the legal right to determine what passes for legitimate journalism in Cumbria. Presumably when they say ‘investigative journalism’ they mean ‘investigative journalism which won’t cause red faces in our offices.”