The complainant made a request for research carried out by the BBC’s Marketing, Communications and Audiences Unit (MC and A) into audience attitudes, any reports by the MC and A and any communications between the MC and A and the BBC’s individual channel heads. The BBC refused to provide the information in the latter two parts of the request claiming it was outside the scope of the Act as it was held for the purposes of journalism, art or literature. It stated that the BBC was not required to supply information held for the purposes of creating the BBC’s output or information that supports and is closely associated with these creative activities. The Commissioner is satisfied that the information in question was held for the purposes of journalism, art and literature. Therefore the BBC was not obliged to comply with parts I to V of the Act.
Section of Act/EIR and Finding: FOI 1 – Complaint Not upheld
Citations:
[2009] UKICO FS50178273
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Information
Updated: 01 April 2022; Ref: scu.532366