FOI tip: Web sites from UK and UF with great document-driven story ideas
Looking for great stories you can do with the help of documents? Here are three Web sites that might help:
1. The Guardian in London has created a Web site where it posts stories based on public records, up to more than 1,200 now. Brits are going gangbusters on access, finding all sorts of problems because of their relatively new Freedom of Information Act. For example, check out the story where The Guardian requested records involving city officials' use of surveillance powers intended to monitor organized crime, finding that most of the officials were using the powers to spy on law-abiding private citizens' phone and e-mail.
2. The BBC has a similar Web site highlighting great stories they did through the use of their FOIA law. Some examples include finding that 20 percent of subway ("tube") drivers are given retraining each year because of unsafe driving, and the fact that many people are certified as dead even though they aren't. What's neat about these sites is you might find a story idea that hasn't been done much or at all in the United States yet.
3. Closer to home, check out a cool site, titled The Storites Behind the Stories, put together by folks at the University of Florida (led by SPJ FOI Committee member Ana-Klara Hering). The project highlights 30 great document-driven investigations in the past 30 years in Florida.
For other links to useful FOI resources and Web sites providing document-driven story ideas, check out the SPJ Sunshine Week site.