Heather Brooke British and American journalist and freedom of information activist Country: Great Britain

Biography of Heather Brooke

Heather Rose Brooke was born in 1970 in Pennsylvania, USA, but holds dual citizenship. She grew up in Seattle, Washington, briefly lived in England, and then returned to the United States at the age of 15. Brooke studied communication at the University of Washington, where she graduated in 1992 with a degree in journalism and politics. She worked for the 'Spokesman-Review' newspaper for a year before becoming a crime reporter for the 'Spartanburg Herald-Journal,' covering homicide investigations in South Carolina.

After covering around 300 "wet" cases, Brooke realized she had burned out. She left journalism and, after her mother died in a car accident in 1996, moved to the United Kingdom. Brooke enrolled at the University of Warwick, hoping to earn a master's degree in English literature, and settled in East London with her husband. She became a copywriter for the BBC and also became an active campaigner in her local community, claiming that local officials were hostile towards the public compared to their counterparts in the United States.

With the passing of the Freedom of Information Act in 2000, Brooke began working on a book that explained how to use this law. The book, titled 'Your Right to Know: A Citizen's Guide to Freedom of Information,' was first published in 2004. A revised edition, with a foreword by Ian Hislop, was released in 2006. In January 2005, Brooke initially requested the disclosure of all expenses of the 646 Members of Parliament, but the House of Commons claimed it would be too costly. In 2006, she scaled back her request and called for information on ten party leader MPs and several ministers. Her request was denied, leading her to seek the assistance of Information Commissioner Richard Thomas in July 2006. It took a year for the commissioner to release some of the information on June 15, 2007. However, the publication of the expenses of some MPs only occurred on May 23, 2008, after a High Court ruling. The House of Commons announced that the full disclosure of all MPs' expenses would be available on July 1, 2009.

In May 2009, 'The Daily Telegraph' obtained unedited data on MPs' expenses, including details that exposed the practice of "flipping" - changing the registered primary address to avoid taxes and hide income and expenses. This led to several MPs resigning and a national scandal. Today, Brooke continues to write a blog about press freedom and information and speaks at various conferences. In 2011, her book 'The Revolution Will Be Digitised' was published, exploring the world of computers, hackers, internet whistleblowers, and democratic activists. She also conducted an in-depth investigation into the organization 'Wikileaks.' Brooke stated, "From my own reports and campaigning on the right to information, it was clear to me that society is undergoing a fundamental transformation. The volume of knowledge in the world is so vast, and technology is so skilled at duplicating data at zero cost, that no government, company, or organization can hope to keep information under its control."