Just say no

Just as the BBC Press Office has been Twittering with slightly enhanced "cojones" (as Americans and Spaniards might say"), Auntie's attitude to Freedom of Information inquiries has toughened up over recent months.

This may be due to the appointment of barrister Nicola Cain to the new title of "Head of Legal - FOI and Contentious DP".  In which, I hope, FOI means Freedom of Information, and DP means Data Protection. Or we're all in trouble.

Nicola (Arnold School, Blackpool, Brunel and UCL) already has an impressive CV in BBC media wrangles, winning Times 'Lawyer of the Week' in 2012. She's provided guidance in the Pollard Review, Panorama's programme on the Fake Sheikh, the attempted Judicial Review by the DUP in the recent election, the BBC v Harper Collins in the matter of The Stig (where Auntie lost), and the long running battle with solicitor Stephen Sugar over access to the The Balen Report, the internal review of the BBC's Middle East coverage.

Knocking out a few terse refusals to FOI anoraks should be no problem.