Media nongovernmental organizations expressed their concern about the introduction in Parliament on November 22 of a bill drafted by the National Center for Personal Data Protection by which the journalists’ access to personal data is made more difficult. In a public call addressed to Speaker of Parliament Andrian Candu, the media NGOs ask not to further worsen the journalists’ access to personal data of public interest, IPN reports.
According to the signatories of the call, the legislative initiative provides that the journalists will be obliged to argue the public interest when they request for information that contains personal data for journalistic purposes. When accessing such types of data, the journalist will have to meet a number of conditions that are not formulated clearly, explicitly and coherently.
For example, it is requested to ensure the person’s right to the protection of personal data and to also ensure there are no interests of the data subject that should be protected and that the guarantees of the subjects are not affected, while the physical and mental security are not endangered. This is doubling of the legal requirements towards journalists. The bill provides all the aspects mentioned above prevail over the public interest.
Even if the informative note to the bill says the goal of the bill is to harmonize the national legislation with the international standards in the field, the general regulations on the protection of personal data stipulate the necessity of ensuring a just balance between the right to the protection of personal data and the freedom of expression and the possibility of the states to provide advantages to the mass media by derogation from the provisions of the regulations.
The media NGOs warn that the bill wasn’t subject to public debates and the analysis of civil society and the provisions of this run counter to the public interest of the people and to the rights and fundamental professional interests of the journalists. They remind the working group for improving the legislation on the mass media that is headed by Andrian Candu already presented a package of laws to modify a whole set of legal acts by which the law on the protection of personal data was amended. The amendments to this package of laws were examined by media experts from the field and journalists, being consulted with civil society.
“We consider that if Parliament initiated this working group, the MPs should give priority to the bills drafted and discussed by the group. We call on the Speaker to promote the package of laws that express journalists’ needs concerning the access to personal data of public interest and to make sure these amendments, which would contribute to improving the legislation on the mass media, are examined and adopted as a matter of urgency,” says the public appeal.
The calls was signed by the Independent Journalism Center, the Association of Independent Press, the Electronic Press Association, the Journalistic Investigations Center, the Committee for the Freedom of the Press, the Association of Independent Tele-Journalists, the Center “Acces-Info” and RISE Moldova.
