Last month we mentioned an unusual situation where the Ministry of Justice had released information about TV Licensing court presentations and subsequently attempted to un-release the same material by claiming it didn't exist.
It really was a bizarre state of affairs. Quite how the Ministry of Justice can hope to un-release something it claims doesn't exist, but whose existence is evident for all to see, is a bit of a mystery. The material in question was an unredacted version of TV Licensing's Magistrates' Court brainwashing presentation, which the BBC would rather Joe Public didn't know about.
Mark Salter, the author of the original request at WhatDoTheyKnow.com, has been doing some digging around to discover the Ministry of Justice's rationale for trying to censor their own Freedom of Information response. It should come as no surprise that the BBC's grubby little paw-prints are all over the Ministry of Justice's change of tune.
In an email dated 23rd December 2013, shortly after they became aware of the "data leak", the BBC said to the Ministry of Justice: "As discussed, we are very disappointed that this presentation has been made publicly available on the WhatDoTheyKnow website.
"Whilst the presentation should not have been shared externally in the first place, TV Licensing would have expected to be notified of the request as a matter of course - as was the case for the FOI received by the Ministry of Justice - so that we could advise on any sensitivities".
So there you have it, straight from the donkey's mouth: If anyone asks any public authority about TV Licensing the BBC wants to know about it, so it can no doubt attempt to influence any subsequent disclosure of information.
It's a situation not unlike TV Licensing's arrogant belief that it is entitled to peddle shite to members of the Judiciary in the first place.
Freedom of information? There's a joke.
Back scratching and institutional cover ups. That's more like it.
Back scratching and institutional cover ups. That's more like it.