FOI Review Issue No. 59

 
FOI access to electronic records

Madeline Campbell

After setting the scene with background information concerning the definitions of "access to documents" and "in the possession of an agency", this article discusses the application of the Commonwealth FOI Act (1982) to access to electronic records. A significant issue canvassed involves the problems associated with the definition of "document" in that an agencies obligation to provide access extends only to existing documents, placing electronic information in a world of its own. Three main problems for agencies in processing FOI applications for access to documents are discussed, which include searching for electronic documents, retrieving electronic documents and modes of access.
 

FOI and the World Wide Web

Susan Clennett and Helen Sheridan

This article firstly discusses the aims and objectives of the Freedom of Information Home Page set up by the FOI Research Unit at the University of Tasmania Law School in May 1995. A case study of co-operative research between a Canadian journalist and the Tasmanian Unit using the Internet is outlined, and numerous FOI sites that have been discovered on the Web are summarised.
 
 
 

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