Every single page of a 425 page Freedom of Information request response has been redacted by staff at Brentwood Council. 

The local councillor who submitted the request for some reason saw fit to print the entire response, which used up a whole ink cartridge – just as barmy as the original response if you ask me. 

The Telegraph write: 

The reply is as thick as a telephone when printed but contains page after page of large black rectangles blocking all key information.

The 425-page document was put together by staff at Brentwood Council in Essex after they received questions about a multi-million pound deal to build a cinema.

Under Freedom of Information laws, local authorities are obliged to provide the public with requested information about how money is spent or how decisions are made.

But the details that did pass the censor’s pen included: “Hi Duncan [redacted] Do you have any comment to make on this?”

You can read the full story here. 

I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.