First-Generation European Data Protection Regulation and Professional Journalism

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explores the interface between professional journalism and early efforts at European data protection regulation prior to the genesis of the Data Protection Directive in the 1990s. Despite some pan-European efforts to explore this interaction including through the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on Data Protection, European States took a strongly divergent approach to this from the beginning. In many cases, a clear gap—generally in favour of the media—was apparent between the statutory requirements laid down in law and practical implementation on the ground. Nevertheless, a number of Nordic Data Protection Authorities made a sustained and far-reaching attempt to constrain media databases including, in some cases, by banning publicly available electronic news archives entirely and heavily regulating internal record-keeping or press libraries. This regulation was particularly focused on ensuring a right to be forgotten, to rehabilitation, and to the rectification of inaccuracies. However, this stringent approach came under sustained attack especially following the birth of the World Wide Web. The end of the period was marked by a growing consensus that most journalistic activity did fall within the scope of data protection but that wide-ranging derogations from its default norms were necessary in order to safeguard freedom of expression.