Extract from OFLC letter dated 6 May 2002

In response to EFA's request that FOI fees be reduced or not imposed on the detailed public interest grounds set out in EFA's letter, the OFLC said:

"You have submitted that it is in the public interest for citizens to have access to information that would enable them to engage in debate about the merits or otherwise of classification decisions of the Classification Boards.

[Note: EFA submitted a number of other grounds, that the OFLC did not address in its response.]

I consider that the Classification Boards provide information about, and are accountable for, classification decisions regarding Internet content in a number of ways, including:

1) the annual report, which provides information about Classification Board and Classification Review Board decisions regarding Internet content;

[Note: EFA requested information that is not in such reports. Such reports provide information about classification of some offline material, but not similar information about any online material.]

2) the classification guidelines, which are available free of charge from both the OFLC and the OFLC web site; and

[Note: EFA requested information about classification of specific online content, similar to that provided in the OFLC database about offline content, not general "guidelines".]

3) information about the prescribed classification fees, which is available free of charge from both the OFLC and the OFLC web site.

[Note: The prescribed fees do not mention Internet content and do not provide the information that EFA requested.]

Given that information about Internet content classification decisions is already available and accountability mechanisms are in place, I do not find that there is a general public interest in providing access to the documents in question for this reason."