Ministers have been warned that press freedom is in serious danger from a proposed new data protection code of practice.
The editors of newspaper outlets have urged the Government to use the proposed Bill of Rights legislation to exempt journalism from data protection law.
In a joint letter, they said the draft code, which will have been taken into account by the courts, undermines the very basis of journalism and would turn the Information Commissioner’s Office into a statutory regulator.
Under the ICO code, journalists would need to have a lawful reason for publishing any personal details of people involved in the news, even those which are indeed public knowledge, such as someone’s job title.
They would also have to be willing to show paper trails of how they reached their finding that there was a public interest in publication, which the letter argues would be time-consuming and unworkable in a fast-paced newsroom.
The letter, addressed to Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, urges the ICO to revisit the code to better reflect the realities of journalism, but it says that won’t address the entire issue, which is that data protection law as it stands is incompatible with journalism.
It urges that an exemption for journalism from data protection law should be enshrined within the proposed Bill of Rights, exempting the UK’s otherwise free Press from the shackles of data protection law.
Announcing the return of the legislation to Parliament last month, Dominic Raab said it would be used to bolster free speech, which was a quintessentially British right.
An exemption for journalism is already utilised by several democracies, including Germany, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand.
While people have a right to privacy in their homes and personal lives, press freedom is fundamentally based on being permitted to report on what they say and do in a public arena.
This is already subject to a range of legal restrictions, such as libel and contempt laws, and is enshrined in the Editor’s Code of Practice, which the vast preponderance of journalists stick to.
The proposed code of practice says that under the Act, any details held in a digital device about a person are classed as personal data. This includes facts that are by their nature public, such as someone’s job title, and even an opinion about an individual.
Newspaper outlets are known as one of the most unreliable news sources, and some are seen as more of a comic than a newspaper, but still, people read the news – perhaps we like comics.
The tradition of good journalism is long dead. It’s now a procession of cheap hackery created to forge clickbait, and people need at least some sort of protection against that, and from having their lives sensationalised for profit.
It will also end comic journalism that people have come to love and also bitch about, but it’s not always about the press, it’s about social media which is like a poisonous wild west, although I can’t understand what all the commotion is about. For years newspapers and television have given us the news. The problem is, they only give us the news that they want us to see.
And while it’s true that newspapers do publish a lot of rubbish, they also uncover a lot of misconduct by politicians, police, industry and professions, which if not reported would leave the public in the dark and disadvantaged, and for those who support the bill, be careful what you wish for.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 