Jenna is a journalist for openDemocracy’s UK investigations team. You can view her work here. She has covered a wide range of topics including transparency and lobbying, policing and protests, and environmental issues.
Jenna is currently a visiting lecturer at City University, teaching the investigative journalism MA programme. She is also a mentor for the Centre for Investigative Journalism’s Lyra McKee Bursary Scheme.
She specialises in obtaining documents under the Freedom of Information Act, as well as other information laws, and has won several awards and received numerous nominations for her work.
In 2022, she won Campaign of the Year at the British Journalism Awards for her work on transparency, and was shortlisted for the campaign category at The Press Awards that year.
In 2021, she was shortlisted for Private Eye’s Paul Foot Award for an openDemocracy investigation into the Cabinet Office’s ‘Clearing House’ and the state of freedom of information.
In 2019, she was longlisted for the Paul Foot Award and shortlisted for the investigations category for the British Journalism Awards.
She has been involved in multiple (and successful) FOI battles against the UK government, including:
- Cabinet Office v Information Commissioner and Jenna Corderoy
- Corderoy and Ahmed v Information Commissioner, Attorney General’s Office and Cabinet Office
- Jenna Corderoy v Information Commissioner and Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority
In March 2024, she organised a conference at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, examining the state of the Freedom of Information Act. That year, she also wrote the publications ‘Getting Personal: Accountability and personal data in the UK’ and ‘Transparency Under Threat: Monitoring FOI compliance in the UK’.
She holds a law degree from King’s College, Cambridge University, and has given talks to journalists and campaigners on how to use the FOI Act and the Data Protection Act effectively.
On completion of her Masters in investigative journalism at City University, she became an information law researcher for Request Initiative, sending FOIs on behalf of charities.
She is the co-author of the Centre for Investigative Journalism’s handbook ‘DPA without the Lawyer‘ and has worked for VICE News as a researcher and writer.
Jenna has also produced reports for the charity Action on Armed Violence, and has volunteered for Full Fact, an independent factchecking organisation.
She can be contacted via Twitter @JennaCorderoy.
Brown Leather Satchel 