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/RSS FeedBen is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Birkbeck College, where FOI Fest 2026 took place. In this five-minute talk, Ben shared the innovative ways in which he has used Freedom of Information to understand more about Freedom of Information itself.
FOI Fest was held on 19th February and was co-organised by the FOI Network.
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Transcript:
0:00 [Gavin Freeguard] Welcome to FOI Fest 2026!
0:05 [Ben Worthy] Hi everybody. My name is Ben Worthy. I’m an academic here at Birkbeck College, and I’m very aware that only I stand between you and lunch, so I will be as quick as I can. (more…)
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In a session from FOI Fest, the Times’ investigation reporter George Greenwood shared his top ten tips around using FOI, in just ten minutes. Enjoy!
FOI Fest was held on 19th February and was co-organised by the FOI Network.
Please fill in our short survey to help us understand more about our listeners!
Transcript
0:00 [Gavin Freeguard] Welcome to FOI Fest 2026.
0:04 [George Greenwood] Hello everybody. My name is George Greenwood, and I’m investigations reporter at the Times newspaper, and put it mildly, an avid user of FOI for my reporting.
0:18 Today, it’s going to be a quick fire skill session, just ten tips in ten minutes, on how best campaigners, journalists, members of the public, even some other public authorities, can use FOI to the best of their ability and to get the most out of it. (more…)
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In this five-minute lightning talk, Andreas Pavlou, Lead at Open Government Partnership Independent Reporting Mechanism, shares positive advances in Access to Information in countries such as the Netherlands and Brazil.
FOI Fest 2026 was held on 19th February and was co-organised by the FOI Network.
Please fill in our short survey to help us understand more about our listeners!
Transcript
0:00 Gavin Freeguard: Welcome to FOI Fest 2026!
0:04 Andreas Pavlou: Afternoon everyone. My name is Andreas Pavlou. I’m lead at the independent reporting mechanism of the Open Government Partnership, which is an international initiative that seeks to bring government and civil society reformers together to co-create commitments that seek to advance transparency, participation and accountability in government.
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Climate Emergency UK are mySociety’s partners in the Council Climate Action Scorecards project, which score every UK council across dozens of measures. In aggregate, the scores give councils a clear way to see how they’re doing, and concerned citizens a useful tool to scrutinise their own local authorities.
But not all the information needed for the Scorecards is openly available. In this short talk from FOI Fest, Isaac Beevor explains how Freedom of Information has solved that problem.
FOI Fest was a one-day conference from mySociety in February 2026.
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Further info
Transcript
0:00 [Isaac Beevor] I’m Isaac. And I really appreciate actually, how Alex said my last name. It’s Isaac Beevor. But if you want to say it Isaac Bee-VOR, then that’s absolutely fantastic. So thank you. (more…)
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Remember the big Post Office scandal? One person played a massive part in uncovering the evidence that eventually brought the extent of the collusion and malpractice to light.
In this lightning talk from FOI Fest, citizen investigator Eleanor Shaikh explains the monumental effects she achieved, with little more than some FOI requests and a determination to bring justice to sub-Postmasters. You’ll be inspired by what you could do, too!
FOI Fest was a one-day conference from mySociety in February 2026.
*** Please fill in our short survey so that we can understand more about who listens to these podcasts, and why! Thank you. ***
Transcript
0:01 [Myf:] This is a lightning talk from FOI Fest, the one day Freedom of Information conference from mySociety. We’re going to hear citizen investigator Elena Shaikh on how she used FOI to uncover hidden facts around the Post Office Horizon scandal,and the effects they had – all in under 10 minutes.
0:25 [Eleanor Shaikh:] I’m not an academic or a journalist, I’m just a customer of the Post Office who began supporting its victims in 2017 when my local branch was hit by an alleged shortfall of £57,000, and I watched the life of the postmaster come crashing down as the burden of proof was cruelly reversed, meaning that innocence rather than guilt had to be proven. (more…)
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An expert panel discuss the current situation with FOI in the UK, and how it has shaped power and public life over the last 21 years.
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Panelists:
– Jenna Corderoy, Investigative Reporter, Democracy for Sale
– Warren Seddon, Director of FOI and Transparency, Information Commissioner’s Office
– Maurice Frankel, Chief Executive, Campaign for Freedom of Information
– Rose Whiffen, Senior Research Officer, Transparency International UK
– Gavin Freeguard, State of the Future (moderator)This was one of the sessions at FOI Fest. If you’d prefer to watch it as a video, head over to our YouTube channel.
Transcript
0:05 [Myf] This is a panel from FOI Fest on the subject of “What has 21 years of FOI changed?”.
0:14 [Gavin Freeguard] So first, we have Rose Whiffen, who is Senior Research Officer at Transparency International UK. We have Jenna Corderoy, who’s Investigative Reporter at Democracy For Sale, and we have Maurice Frankel, the chief executive of the Campaign for Freedom of Information UK. (more…)
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FOI Fest was a one-day conference that took place in London on 19th February, 2026. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be putting each session out as a separate podcast.
In this keynote, Warren Seddon, Director of FOI and Transparency at the Information Commissioner’s Office , gave a frank assessment of the current challenges of dealing with an unprecedented backlog of requests.
This session can also be watched as a video, on YouTube.
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Transcript:
0:00 [Gavin Freeguard] Welcome to FOI Fest 2026!
0:04 It’s my pleasure to welcome to the stage our morning keynote, that is Warren Seddon from the ICO.
0:09 [Warren] Thank you everyone for having me speak today. First of all, I feel like we start with an apology to Alex, who’s been involved in the organising for today, because I wrote my remarks, and then I looked at his email and I realised he sent me a brief for my remarks that talked about being energising and peppy, and you probably didn’t say peppy, and to get the day off on a footing. (more…)
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/RSS FeedFOI Fest was a one-day conference that took place in London on 19th February, 2026. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be putting each session out as a separate podcast.
To start with, here is the introductory session with a welcome from Gavin Freeguard of the State of the Future thinktank, followed by words from John Edwards, the Information Commissioner.
This session can also be watched as a video, on YouTube.
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Transcript:
0:00 Gavin Freeguard Welcome to FOI Fest 2026, a one-day conference celebrating Freedom of Information’s 21st birthday, where we’ll discuss the achievements, challenges and future of FOI. (more…)
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Over the past decade, mySociety has convened a global community with a shared interest in how digital tools can defend and advance democracy, via our TICTeC events and activities.
This new report draws on dozens of TICTeC presentations, and interviews with global civic technologists. The result? A practical framework for navigating different approaches to using technology in the service of democracy, bringing out examples of innovation, and guidance on how to use the best tools available. It’s designed to be a practical jumping-off point for practitioners and funders seeking to understand more about using digital technology to defend and advance democracy.
At this launch event, mySociety researchers shared key insights from the report, reflected on impacts of TICTeC initiatives, and discussed ideas of what’s needed next to protect and innovate democracy in a changing global context.
- Read the report: Shifting landscapes: what we’ve learned from TICTeC
- TICTeC Knowledge hub
- See the value in our work? Please donate.
- Sign up for our mailouts
Transcript
00:00 Louise Crow: Well, hello everyone. Welcome.
0:03 For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Louise Crow. I’m the Chief Executive of mySociety, and really appreciate you joining us for this session where we’re going to be launching our TICTeC landscape report.
0:15 We’ve called it ‘Shifting landscapes, a practical guide to pro-democracy tech’. We’re going to be pulling out some key parts of the report and basically discussing what we’ve learned from running TICTeC over the last couple of years. (more…)
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A behind-the-scenes look at how Fiquem Sabendo uses Brazil’s FOI law to unlock data and support investigative journalism.
Maria Vitória Ramos, Co-founder and Director of Fiquem Sabendo, shares how the organisation prepares requests, processes government data, and supports journalists in turning information into impactful reporting.
Fiquem Sabendo is a non-profit newsroom and data agency that uses Brazil’s access to information law to uncover and share government data with journalists and the public. Since its founding, the team has released over a thousand new public datasets and trained thousands of journalists and citizens to make effective FOI requests. They also publish the popular newsletter Don’t LAI to Me, bringing transparency stories to a wide audience.
If you find this podcast valuable, please consider donating to help us keep making them.
Music: Serge Pavkin Music (Pixabay licence)
Transcript
0:00 Julia: We are joined by the wonderful Maria Vitória Ramos from Fiquem Sabendo in Brazil. Some of you may already know her from her fantastic presentation at TICTeC in London in 2024: I think it was a highlight for lots of people, including myself.
0:12 If you haven’t come across their work before, Fiquem Sabendo is a nonprofit newsroom and data agency that uses Brazil’s Freedom of Information laws to unlock public data and make it useful for journalists, civil society organisations and the public.
