Well here is an interesting thing. Or not.

A Herald Sun journalist has lodged a Freedom of Information request with the ABC for all emails and other correspondence between me, other Crikey staff and Mark Scott and the ABC’s public relations people.

I know about this because, under FoI, if an agency is considering releasing documents that concern an individual’s personal or business affairs, then that person gets consulted. So it is that I got a call from the ABC’s FoI officer Judith Maude earlier this week, together with all the emails she was considering releasing.

Now I have no idea what story the journalist thought he might glean from this. Given News Limited’s jaundiced view of the ABC, Crikey and of me for that matter, (Terry McCrann recently referred to Crikey as “the darker reaches of peripheral hate media“, which is almost worth getting on a T-shirt) it is tempting to entertain conspiracy theories. But the truth is that most of the emails are of such crushing tedium that, well, we have decided to inflict them on you first.

The complete email log is published today on my blog, and I and the Crikey staff have also notified the ABC that we have no objections to the lot being released under FoI.

Forgive me a wry smile as I suggest that in the interests of consistency, perhaps News Limited executives and reporters would be happy for me to release the email correspondence I have with them? Or what about those DMs on Twitter?

There is, after all, something called the Right to Know Coalition of which News Limited is the lead partner.

Oh, but then again, that organisation favours the protection of journalists’ relationship with their sources, having said that it was “central to the principles and ethics of journalists”.

So perhaps the journalist making the request is simply off on a venture of his own. I have tried to contact him this morning, to ask about his motivation, but he did not reply to my calls and Twitter DMs before deadline.

If you can be bothered, thrill to the exchange with the ABC over my changed email address.

Gasp at the difficulties of lining up Mark Scott for interview.

Share the spills as I fail to extract any comment whatsoever on the thorny matter of Director Radio Sue Howard’s abrupt departure in December 2008.

From Sandy Culkoff
To Margaret Simons
Subject: Sue Howard
17 December 2008

Meg, don’t have anything on this at the moment….will call you as soon as I do….S

…

From Margaret Simons
To Sandy Culkoff
Subject: Sue Howard
17 December 2008

Deadline approaches….will I hear from you?

…

From Sandy Culkoff
To Margaret Simons
Subject: Sue Howard
17 December 2008

Unlikely

From Margaret Simons
To Sandy Culkoff
Subject Sue Howard
17 December 2008

I can hold off for another twenty minutes if that would make a difference…if not, appreciate knowing.

…

From Sandy Culkoff
To Margaret Simons
Subject Sue Howard
17 December 2008

Unlikely…

…

Can you bear the excitement?

Well, there are a couple from which one might extract a drop of juice.

There is one email that refers to an off-the-record conversation, and a couple that contain information that was, at the time, provided on background. In observance of my ethical obligations to sources, I have gained permission from my sources to publish these exchanges.

If my sources had held me to my original undertakings, I would have opposed release of the off-the-record or on background parts of the correspondence.

The dramatis personae, for those of you not familiar with ABC people, are managing director Mark Scott; head of corporate communications Sandy Culkoff and director of communications Michael Millett. The director of editorial policies, Paul Chadwick, (who is a personal friend of mine) also gets a mention.

And then there is Gerard Henderson. See the emails exchanged in April 2008 with Mark Scott. I had trouble remembering what it was all about, but dug this story out of the archives. What the off-the-record conversation Scott and I had during this exchange I can’t for the life of me remember.

Other highlights? Sandy Culkoff thought I was on the money about then Minister for the Arts Peter  Garrett in April 2008. But what had I said? I have searched through the archives without success, but from memory I had reported that arts organisations, including the ABC, were having trouble getting to see him.

Now, it is true that my relationship with the ABC can get complicated. I wear several hats: media commentator and reporter, university lecturer, chair of the Foundation for Public Interest Journalism, and so on. Things can get complicated, and I take care when they do.

That’s why I made this declaration on my blog earlier this week. I am all for transparency.

But I think what the emails show is an amicable professional relationship, with the normal push and pull of using and being used that goes with contact relationships and corporate communications. It is always a difficult balance to strike.

I hope people enjoy the results.