It's all part of the Ministry of Justice's plan to extend freedom of information to a wider range of bodies which may be private themselves but have public functions.
Lord McNally acknowledged there was "a tension within government" on how much to extend freedom of information to private sector bodies, although he added that the split was not along party lines.
As for the US Department of Justice, the ruling clearly noted that free speech rights do not extend to instances where information is false and misleading.