ABC Style Guides/Brand Guides/Writing Guides
Dear Australian Broadcasting Corporation,
This is a Freedom of Information Request for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 1982.
I request access to the Style Guides/Brand Guides/Writing Guides currently used for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Yours faithfully,
Alex Pentland
ABC FOI 202324-052
Good evening Mr Pentland
Thank you for your email.
The ABC would be grateful if you would clarify the scope of your request. Is it possible to call and ask speak to the FOI team so we can discuss with you?
For example, does the Guide you refer to pertain to the ABC's journalism or a specific area of the ABC?
Many thanks,
ABC FOI team
13 9994
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians
and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.
This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee. It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know by separate email or telephone and delete the email from your system.
Dear FOI ABC,
I must apologise for my late reply to this request.
For the purpose of the request, this request is primarily concerned with the corporate side of ABC's documents. I acknowledge the difficult and limited areas the FOI has in terms of ABC content for consumption, so I am largely excluding journalistic guides and instructional materials for this request. More than happy to leave that to others.
Most government corporate entities, agencies, and other such bodies will have such corporate documents, and these are the ones I am looking for primarily.
Happy to extend or make a subsequent request given the nature of the request and my delayed answer.
Yours sincerely,
Alex Pentland
ABC FOI 202324-052
Many thanks for your response.
We are making further enquiries and will come back to you.
When you say the corporate area of the ABC - which area/s of the ABC do you mean?
If you have an example of the Guide you may have received from another government agency, is it possible to send that through as an example?
If you are able to call us it may assist with clarity, otherwise we will await your email.
Many thanks,
ABC FOI team
13 9994
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians
and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.
This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee. It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know by separate email or telephone and delete the email from your system.
Dear FOI ABC,
I will attach two links to this of functionally comparable FOI requests which, I believe, outline the type of content contained in this request
FOI request for Commonwealth Obmudsman: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/s...
FOI request for AEC: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/s...
As you can see in both requests, when I ask for the documents relied on by the "corporate level", I'm talking about documents used by the corporation as a whole, rather than things like journalistic guides.
An example of this would be the issue of subbrands. Some of these entities include brands for the main entity (Say, Commonwealth Ombudsman) and any other branding/style documents for any sub-entity/sub-responsibility (Australian National Preventive mechanism). In the context of this request, this could look like, hypothetically, guides that might be used for ABC Listen, or the design of any other ABC brand.
Yours sincerely,
Alex Pentland
ABC FOI 202324-052
Good evening Mr Pentland
Thank you for the additional information. Our sincere apologies, this email was sitting in drafts and did not reach you earlier.
The ABC being a media organisation has guides that are essentially linked to our journalism / content as opposed to being corporate guides as with the examples you helpfully provided.
The ABC's brands operate in a competitive media landscape with multiple brands in the marketplace, unlike say the AEC or the Commonwealth Ombudsman.
As you have expressed an interest in a 'sub-brand' such as ABC Listen, would you be happy to progress the request for the Brand Guide for ABC Listen and or perhaps one other ABC brand to start with?
The ABC is mindful that the first 5 hours of processing is free and the more Guides that are included it is likely the processing time will exceed this allowance.
Before the ABC considers a formal request consultation process, depending if you seek specific guides or potentially all style and or brand guides, would you kindly let us know if you are happy to start with one or 2 specific brands and if so, which ones?
Upon receiving the outcome of this request, if you then required more information, you would be able to put in subsequent FOI request/s upon receiving the outcome of this request.
We note your email of 22 January where you indicated you may wish to make a new request or provide an extension of time. We thank you for this option, and may wish to agree with this, depending on the size of the final scope.
As noted previously, we would be happy to chat through options by phone if you would like to call us.
Many thanks,
ABC FOI team
13 9994
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians
and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.
This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee. It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know by separate email or telephone and delete the email from your system.
Dear FOI ABC,
I must apologise for my late reply here.
As per my last email, I used the example of the ABC listen sub-brand as an "example", not a comprehensive list of the brands requested. The clear previews of the request state that this is a request for "Style Guides/Brand Guides/Writing Guides currently used for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation." This is not a *single* style guide, nor a pairing of requests, this is a request pertaining to all guides used by the Corporation.
Noting the comment made that the ABC operates in a "competitive media landscape", I think it is highly relevant to note that the SBS a similarly situated Corporation in the identical "competitive media landscape" did not raise further clarification of objections when I made a similar request, merely requesting a time extension. (https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/s...). Given how the SBS has proceeded with this request in a relatively no-nonsense and straightforward way, and how this request's initial wording is *identical* with the only exception being substituting the ABC for SBS, I think this offers a clear path of how the ABC can proceed.
I also note how other agencies have been able to review and public with minimal redactions large swathes of documents relating to style guides (which have been extensively published on the RightToKnow website). I also note how rare it has been to even generate a charge for these requests, given that these requests rarely extend past the five-hour processing period. I believe it is a reasonable request to proceed with this request for *all* style guides/brand guides/writing guides used by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, given the way in which other agencies, let alone other similarly situated *broadcasting agencies* have been able to proceed with them.
As such, I thank you for your work in proceeding with the request for all the Style Guides/Brand Guides/Writing Guides currently used for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
I trust this finds you well.
Alex Pentland
ABC FOI 202324-052
Good evening Mr Pentland
Thank you for your email of 15 February confirming you prefer not to
narrow the scope of your request to a few Guides to start with. This was
an option for you to consider in order to speed up the processing of the
file.
In the past, the ABC FOI team has been able to fulfill your requests
without a charge as they have been narrow requests requiring about 5
hours’ work.
Given the way the ABC operates, the scope of this request is large and
requires more than 5 hours work across the various areas of the ABC who
need to assist as we indicted earlier when seeking to clarify the scope
with you.
Our initial understanding of your email attached, and its qualifying
wording, was that Guides that related to content / program making were to
be excluded. However your later emails did not give this impression
meaning a larger set of documents would be captured.
Your correspondence with other agencies is publicly available on Right to
Know including charges incurred and clarifying questions about scope. The
ABC does not intend to comment on your communications about those files.
On the basis you appear to not be excluding Guides related to program
material, in recognition that we are a public broadcaster, we will proceed
with the scope you indicted on 15 February being:
…. [under the Freedom of Information Act (Cth) 1982 this is a] request for
*all* style guides/brand guides/writing guides used by the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation
If you would kindly confirm this, we will send a formal acknowledgement
email.
Our apologies for the delay between responses. We remain happy to chat by
phone, you may use a private number to call if you prefer.
In addition, there is some information publicly available here: [1]ABC
Editorial Standards | About the ABC
Many thanks,
ABC FOI team
13 9994
This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee.
It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not
read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of
the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you
have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know
by separate email or telephone and delete the email from your system.
Dear FOI ABC,
Sorry for the reply, but it appears that this request has fallen to the wayside.
Is this request still being followed and action by the ABC?
Yours sincerely,
Alex Pentland
ABC FOI 202324-052
Good afternoon Mr Pentland
Thank you for your follow up email. Our further apologie for not resolving the FOI request as promptly as other matters we have processed for you.
The ABC confirms that we are continuing to process this request for you. As this request is now outside of the statutory timeframe to seek extensions of time, as well as to apply for an IC Review, the ABC is not able to make a valid decision under the FOI Act.
In order to issue a decision that complies with the legislation, an option to consider is re-submitting your scope as a new request. This would re-instate your right to seek an internal or external review of that decision once it is made (or if it is late and becomes deemed).
The FOI team would do its best to finalise that decision within 30 days such that it would be issued on time to you. If you are happy with that option, the OAIC requires applicants to state in writing that they withdraw their previous request (of 4 January 2024) so we can procedurally close that file and progress the new scope for you instead.
If you would like to discuss by phone, please ask for the FOI team during business hours. We again apologies for the extended delay.
Many thanks,
ABC FOI team
13 9994
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians
and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.
This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee. It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know by separate email or telephone and delete the email from your system.
Dear FOI ABC,
I am fine to re-submit the scope of my request, as previously stated, for the purposes of continuing this freedom of information request.
If, for whatever reason, the 30 days are not enough to finalise this request, I am also happy to provide a further extension to this request to allow for it to be processed.
Yours sincerely,
Alex Pentland
ABC FOI 202425-002
Good afternoon Mr Pentland
Thank you kindly for your email today, 2 July 2024, confirming you have
withdrawn your previous request made in January 2024. As agreed, the ABC
will process your request as a new file (numbered to match the FY25
reporting year).
We understand the scope of your request received today to be:
Under the Freedom of Information Act (Cth) 1982, I seek
access to the Style Guides/Brand Guides/Writing Guides currently used for
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
This request is primarily concerned with the corporate side of ABC's
documents. I acknowledge the difficult and limited areas the FOI has in
terms of ABC content for consumption, so I am largely excluding
journalistic guides and instructional materials for this request.
Please let us know if the scope is correctly worded to include the
clarification you previously provided under your now withdrawn file.
The ABC will continue to finalise its searches in this matter and provide
a decision to you as soon as is practicable.
We really appreciate you pre-notifying your approval of a s 15AA extension
of time if that is required (email below).
By making an FOI request, you are providing personal information to the
ABC. The ABC manages personal information in accordance with its Privacy
Policy - available at [1]ABC Privacy Policy – ABC Help - Australian
Broadcasting Corporation Help Centre . Personal information may be
disclosed in the course of processing this request, such as for the
purposes of consultation or reporting.
Thank you again for your understanding and patience with this FOI request.
Many thanks,
ABC FOI team
13 9994
This email, including any attachments, is intended only for the addressee.
It is confidential and may contain privileged information. You should not
read, copy, use or disclose it, or take any other action in reliance of
the information contained in this email, without authorisation. If you
have received the email in error, please immediately let the sender know
by separate email or telephone and delete the email from your system.
Dear Mr Pentland
Our ref: ABC FOI 202425-002
Please find attached the FOI decision and document in relation to the
above FOI request.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss this matter further,
please feel free to contact us.
Many thanks.
Kind regards
Uma
ABC FOI Team
02 8333 3328