Freedom of information

APEC 2007 – Truth revealed by Freedom-of-Infomation

I covered the protester aspect of the 2007 Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in Sydney for the Sydney Morning Herald. Using direct reporting and a series of Freedom-of-Information requests I found that police were forced to make a payout for wrongly arresting a protester, spent $2 million on a…

Prison Guards rob and bully: report

DOZENS of prison officers committed criminal offences last year, including bashing inmates, assaulting and bullying co-workers and stealing, according to a confidential Corrective Services report. The department held 162 misconduct hearings into staff between last January and June and found enough evidence to warrant disciplinary or further action in 65…

NSW Police, a big group of teenagers and the ensuing riot

Catalogue of police blunders at party that was broken up Police tried to suppress details of their baton-wielding reaction to a teen dance event, but freedom-of-information laws have exposed the embarrassing details. Read more… I’ve had mixed results with freedom-of-information laws. On this ocassion I was able to get a…

Universities violate privacy laws

Two more useful freedom-of-information searches that came back with useful results about the way universities and the police interact. July 11, 2007: Uni lets police see personal records THE University of Technology, Sydney, has given police access to student and staff information during the past two years without the knowledge…