Dear British Broadcasting Corporation,

I have explored these muddy waters before, without success, and I would appreciate your guidance and assistance so that I can obtain some useful and meaningful information without falling foul of the "journalism, art and literature" derogation. I am aware of FOI Act Section 16 and I would be grateful if you would apply that to this request as appropriate and if necessary.

After several communications with the BBC Complaints Department it appears to me that BBC staff can either have a "BBC" Twitter account or a "personal" Twitter account, with the latter being outside of their jurisdiction. To me, as a viewer and licence fee payer, it is *extremely* difficult to deduce which is "BBC" and which is "personal". For example, a leading player in BBC News has a Twitter handle of "firstname_lastname" and a description of "<something> Editor @BBCNewsnight" but that is not, apparently, a "BBC" account. Another leading BBC News player has a Twitter handle of "@BBCFirstnameInitial" and has a description of "Watch <this>, Follow @BBCNews, @BBCPolitics, Share stories at #CoronavirusNewscast, Subscribe <here>" but that evidently is a "BBC" account. So how do I tell the difference?

Is it as simple as "BBC" accounts start with "@BBC"? If so, confirmation of that would be extremely helpful. If it is more subtle than that then your guidance would be gratefully received.

As it is, I am wasting my own time and that of BBC Complaints simply because I cannot work out which Twitter accounts are "personal" and which are "BBC". I hope the information you provide will prevent that happening again.

Yours faithfully,

Mr A Willmore

Dear FOI Enquiries,

In the past, with other requests, I have always made a point of thanking you for your response and the useful information contained therein. In this case, however, your particularly unhelpful response does not warrant any thanks, so I will refrain from doing so on this occasion.

I know only too well of the derogation, and I asked for your assistance and guidance to avoid falling foul of it as I knew there was a significant risk that I would. I feel sure that you could have made some useful suggestions before sending an almost mechanised refusal, but for reasons best known to yourselves you chose not to assist. Your secrecy surrounding this topic is, quite frankly, beyond belief.

I am, of course, left with nowhere to go now but it does give me greater impetus to send more messages to BBC Complaints concerning BBC staff Twitter messages, and I will quote this FOI reference in every one just to show that I have attempted to work out which are personal, and which are BBC.

For readers of the whatdotheyknow web site, here are some examples of BBC staff Twitter accounts. See if you can work out whether they are "BBC" or "personal"...

James Cook : @jamesdgcook : Exec Editor BBC Creative Development Unit for Radio/Pods: Bloodsport, BBC Earth Pod, Wheel of Misfortune. All my opinions are official BBC policy. ALL of them.

Dominic Casciani : @BBCDomC : #multitasking BBC News Home Affairs Correspondent. Stories, Features, Documentaries, including The Mafia Man in the Lancashire Caravan: http://bbc.in/2UV2ILv

Lewis Goodall : @lewis_goodall : Policy Editor @BBCNewsnight. I cover politics, policy, economics and government in the UK and beyond | Author: Left for Dead. Buy here- http://bit.ly/2KEYHSk : [email address]

According to BBC Complaints, Mr Goodall's is "personal".

Yours sincerely,

Mr A Willmore