interactive GDPR 2016/0679 EN

(153) Member States law should reconcile the rules governing freedom of expression and information, including journalistic, academic, artistic and or literary expression with the right to the protection of personal_data pursuant to this Regulation.

  The processing of personal_data solely for journalistic purposes, or for the purposes of academic, artistic or literary expression should be subject to derogations or exemptions from certain provisions of this Regulation if necessary to reconcile the right to the protection of personal_data with the right to freedom of expression and information, as enshrined in Article 11 of the Charter.

  This should apply in particular to the processing of personal_data in the audiovisual field and in news archives and press libraries.

  Therefore, Member States should adopt legislative measures which lay down the exemptions and derogations necessary for the purpose of balancing those fundamental rights.

  Member States should adopt such exemptions and derogations on general principles, the rights of the data subject, the controller and the processor, the transfer of personal_data to third countries or international_organisations, the independent supervisory authorities, cooperation and consistency, and specific data- processing situations.

  Where such exemptions or derogations differ from one Member State to another, the law of the Member State to which the controller is subject should apply.

  In order to take account of the importance of the right to freedom of expression in every democratic society, it is necessary to interpret notions relating to that freedom, such as journalism, broadly.

(154) This Regulation allows the principle of public access to official documents to be taken into account when applying this Regulation.

  Public access to official documents may be considered to be in the public interest.

  Personal data in documents held by a public authority or a public body should be able to be publicly disclosed by that authority or body if the disclosure is provided for by Union or Member State law to which the public authority or public body is subject.

  Such laws should reconcile public access to official documents and the reuse of public sector information with the right to the protection of personal_data and may therefore provide for the necessary reconciliation with the right to the protection of personal_data pursuant to this Regulation.

  The reference to public authorities and bodies should in that context include all authorities or other bodies covered by Member State law on public access to documents.

  Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (14) leaves intact and in no way affects the level of protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal_data under the provisions of Union and Member State law, and in particular does not alter the obligations and rights set out in this Regulation.

  In particular, that Directive should not apply to documents to which access is excluded or restricted by virtue of the access regimes on the grounds of protection of personal_data, and parts of documents accessible by virtue of those regimes which contain personal_data the re-use of which has been provided for by law as being incompatible with the law concerning the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal_data.

(164) As regards the powers of the supervisory authorities to obtain from the controller or processor access to personal_data and access to their premises, Member States may adopt by law, within the limits of this Regulation, specific rules in order to safeguard the professional or other equivalent secrecy obligations, in so far as necessary to reconcile the right to the protection of personal_data with an obligation of professional secrecy.

  This is without prejudice to existing Member State obligations to adopt rules on professional secrecy where required by Union law.