Blogs banned in Leinster House (and Blackhall Place)

Dick O’Brien tells us today that staff at Leinster House have been asked to sign a web usage policy banning them from looking at all ‘weblogs’.

(I can add to this that the Law School in Blackhall Place, while I was there, decided to take more direct action by blocking access to any address with ‘blog’ in the URL.)

Now leave aside the question of whether there is a legal right for the Oireachtas to tell their staff not to access an entire class of site sharing only the use of a content management system. Of course they do.

Rather we should ask- why would they?
As politicians start to take up blogging as a good way to communicate with the general public, why are their staff being barred from reading their work?

Section 18 of the FOI Act allows anyone personally effected by a public body’s decision to demand an explanation of why they took it. Decisions by public bodies must be rational and resonable. Making this query is free. I’d love to hear the answer if anyone asks the question.