News » Data protection bill ‘threatens press freedom’ 2017-11-01

An attempt to narrow the journalistic exemptions to tough new data protection laws has been criticised as an “acute threat to freedom of expression” by the newspaper industry.

Amendments tabled to the Data Protection Bill, which is in the Lords, will make it more difficult for reporters to pursue investigative journalism, it is claimed.

On Thursday peers proposed amendments that would have obliged print journalists to follow the standards code endorsed by Impress, the state-approved press regulator, in order to claim a public interest defence when accessing personal data to expose wrongdoing.

The original bill stipulated that journalists should follow the Editors’ Code of Practice overseen by Ipso, the regulator that counts most national, regional and local newspapers as members.

The newspaper industry accused the…

Source:https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/data-protection-bill-threatens-press-freedom-x2jf5qmmb