links for 2010-04-05

The size of the task facing him is highlighted by our article in today's Mercury which details plans by Labour’s chief whip, Coun Barbara Potter, to ban the use of social media sites, Twitter in particular, during council meetings.

Twitter allows people to post short messages onto the internet almost instantaneously and is being used by councillors, journalists and members of the public to give an almost live feed of what is going on in council meetings.

It’s not clear how the council could legally ban its use, but more importantly, it is difficult to see why it would want to.

A intersting FOI from the Edinburgh Evening News to kick off this week’s FOI Friday. The paper used FOI to request information from the Royal Mail about the number of complaints made about damaged, missing or lost post in the Edinburgh postcode area. The figures show £130,000 was paid out and 50 complaints made a day.

PCC director Stephen Abell added: "This is a significant ruling because it shows that the PCC expects the same standards in newspaper and magazine blogs that it would expect in comment pieces that appear in print editions.

"There is plenty of room for robust opinions, views and commentary but statements of fact must still be substantiated if and when they are disputed."