A group of websites has grown up to help ordinary members of the public send requests to official authorities and read the replies. Their results have ranged from a promising start to genuine success, and together they have made access-to-documents laws far easier to use.
Making access-to-documents requests public
What these platforms share is a simple idea: requests, and the authorities' responses, are published in the open. That way everyone can benefit from a single question, similar requests do not have to be filed twice, and public bodies can be held to the answers they give. Over time a searchable archive of official replies builds up, turning scattered correspondence into a public resource.
WhatDoTheyKnow and the Alaveteli platform
The best-known example is WhatDoTheyKnow, a United Kingdom site run by the not-for-profit organisation mySociety. It lets anyone send a Freedom of Information request to a public authority through the website, then publishes both the request and the reply for everyone to see. Because the correspondence is public, a growing record of what authorities have released is available to the next person who asks.
WhatDoTheyKnow runs on Alaveteli, the open-source software that mySociety developed for the purpose. Alaveteli has since been reused by civil-society groups in many countries to launch their own request sites, which is why platforms in very different jurisdictions often feel familiar to use.
Sister platforms across Europe
Several European projects follow the same model:
- FragDenStaat, in Germany, lets people file requests under the country's freedom-of-information rules and publishes the results.
- AsktheEU handles requests addressed to the institutions of the European Union.
- TuDerechoaSaber.es ("Your right to know") gave people in Spain a way to make and track requests to public bodies.
Behind several of these efforts is Access Info Europe, a Madrid-based human-rights organisation that campaigns for the right of access to information and has worked to promote request platforms across the continent.
Why the platforms matter
By turning a private letter into a public record, these sites lower the barrier to using access-to-documents laws and make the process easier to understand for anyone filing a request for the first time. A practical walk-through of the underlying rights is available in the guide on how to use European freedom of information.
Frequently asked questions
What is WhatDoTheyKnow?
It is a UK website, run by mySociety, that lets the public send freedom-of-information requests to public authorities and publishes both the requests and the responses.
What is Alaveteli?
Alaveteli is the open-source software developed by mySociety that powers WhatDoTheyKnow and has been reused to run similar request platforms in other countries.
Are there equivalent platforms in other countries?
Yes. Examples include FragDenStaat in Germany, AsktheEU for European Union institutions, and TuDerechoaSaber.es in Spain, several of them supported by Access Info Europe.