ABSTRACT
The Campaign for the Freedom of Information (CFoI) is a UK-based, not-for-profit advocacy organisation. From 1989 through to the present, the CFoI has almost continuously been supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT). The Trust is strongly influenced by the Quaker background of its founder. While charities in the UK are not allowed to fund political campaigns or parties, they are allowed to support politically relevant research. While the law and the corresponding procedures and costs are not without critics, it seems plausible to assume that the CFoI and its allies have succeeded in establishing a complex infrastructure of legal regulations, political and civil society constituency, trained civil servants as well as informed media and the broader public. In the early days, low media interest was reported, this attitude changed "once the FOIA was enacted and the media began to reap its benefits with headline stories based on information released under the Act".
