Abstract
The goal of this study is to explore the Right to Be Forgotten (RTBF) as a specific legal aspect of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) within the context of digital journalism and related media policy issues. We address this issue in cases where requests have been made to unpublish news items or other (visual) content from online media archives because they contain embarrassing, irrelevant and/or outdated, yet truthful content. To do this, we researched the editorial policies of five Slovenian online news media outlets in their responses to such unpublishing requests. First, we reviewed regulation and key legal decisions and then used in-depth semi-structured interviews with editors of these outlets. Our research showed that unpublishing requests from 2018 and 2019 cite or imply the RTBF as having an EU-wide legal basis, yet the media outlets analyzed have not established clear internal policies. This opens the door to inconsistent and/or arbitrary decisions. The legal foundations for unpublishing online news items are vague and, at least in Slovenia, subject to opposing interpretations which might lead to new restrictions on media freedom. To avoid additional potential for the manipulation of media, both legal and self-regulatory frameworks need to be updated and clarified.
Highlights
The issue of censorship and freedom of expression in the digital ecosystem has been evolving within the wider framework of “a conceptual reevaluation of a new communication technology” (Bollinger 1990, 103)
The goal of this study is to explore the implications of new media regulations applying to the right to be forgotten (RTBF) for digital journalism in cases of RTBF requests by individuals to unpublish truthful information
To research how Slovenian online news media outlets respond to unpublishing requests implying the RTBF, we used the methodological approach of legal analysis, combining semistructured interviews and document-based legal analysis to provide a complex investigation of the research issue (Milosavljević and Poler 2019)
Summary
The issue of censorship and freedom of expression in the digital ecosystem has been evolving within the wider framework of “a conceptual reevaluation of a new communication technology” (Bollinger 1990, 103). The development of new policy framework for digital journalism calls for such reevaluation, as the new ICT on which digital journalism is based presents a number of challenges to freedom of expression, a key component of democratic governance (Council of the European Union 2014, 3). A senior director of PEN America states that “the use of the internet to track individuals is facilitating oppression and paving the way towards authoritarianism” (Rolley 2019) This dual relationship between positive and negative aspects is reflected in Zelizer’s definition of digital journalism: it is a practice of newsmaking that “embodies a set of expectations, practices, capabilities and limitations relative to those associated with pre-digital and non-digital forms”, while its rhetoric “heralds the hopes and anxieties associated with sustaining the journalistic enterprise as worthwhile” (Zelizer 2019, 349). These anxieties are seen and felt because of new legal issues and pressures, such as requests to delete a journalistic story from digital media
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