European Regulatory Interpretation of the Interface between Data Protection and Journalistic Freedom: An Incomplete and Imperfect Balancing Act?

Directive 95/46 required European Economic Area Member States to ensure a careful balancing between the inherently conflicting values of data protection and journalistic freedom of expression. Unfortunately, however, this was often not achieved during the transposition of the Directive into local law. At the same time, both Directive 95/46 and the Art. 7 of the EU Charter mandated Member States to set up supervisory Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) which in practice dominate the data protection landscape. In light of this, EEA DPAs were surveyed on their understanding of the right to subject access and the practice of undercover political journalism, with the responses then compared to provisions in local data protection law. The results demonstrated that DPAs do seek a balance in this area even against contrary statute. Nevertheless, the balancing achieved often remains incomplete, normatively contestable, opaque and precarious. It is argued that, during the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation, these challenges must be tackled through a combination of both legislative and regulatory action.British Academ