Reaching the final appeal stage as envisioned under the Freedom of Information (FOI) law is practically impossible, as the government has thus far neglected to appoint an Information and Data Protection Appeals Tribunal.

The members of the tribunal tendered their resignation last year after the March 2013 general election.

The tribunal is the third stage out of a possible four through which FOI decisions can be appealed. The final stage involves registering a complaint with the Court of Appeal within 30 days of the last communication from the non-existent tribunal.

Prior to the tribunal stage, applicants must first ask for an internal review to be conducted by the relevant public authority, namely the same authority which would have rejected the original request.

 If this is turned down again, the applicant can then file a complaint through the Information and Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC).

The appeals tribunal falls under the remit of Social Dialogue Minister Helena Dalli.

One FOI request sent by this newspaper to the Economy Ministry went unacknowledged for two weeks. When a reply was received, the paper was informed that certain documentation for the request to be filed had not been attached.

The results of another FOI request filed by this newspaper on 9 September were only received in mid-December.

This request asked for a breakdown of the use of Facebook, Twitter and pornography during Parliament.