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The draft was registered by 15 MPs from PDM faction, including Speaker of the Parliament Andrian Candu. The draft states that when processing personal data, journalists will have to respect the physical and mental security of data subjects, their rights and interests. The definitions do not specify the nature of these interests.
Another article states that freedom of expression and information could be limited in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, to prevent disorder or crimes, protect health or morals, protect the reputation or the rights of others, prevent the disclosure of confidential information or maintain the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.
According to lawyer Tatiana Puiu, Freedom House Representative in Moldova, such provisions will limit media access to personal information of public interest. According to her, the authorities did not take into account that they had to harmonize the national law to the European one by clearly setting out the exemptions and derogations from the general principles of personal data protection. ‘The draft registered with the Parliament does not envisage any exceptions for the media in terms of processing personal data’, says Tatiana Puiu, adding that ‘the draft was developed in non-compliance with the principle of transparency, experts’ opinions, journalists’ needs and media realities in the Republic of Moldova. One may not pass a law in line with the EU standards on personal data protection and leave the Law on Freedom of Speech exactly the same as it was passed 20 years ago’, underscored Puiu.
Another worrying aspect, in the lawyer’s opinion, is the heavy fines journalists that might have to pay for possible violations of this law.
Maria Dastic, Head of the Information, Media Communication and e-Transformation Service of the National Center for Personal Data Protection, told Media-azi that representatives of the Center prefer not to comment on this draft until its approval in the first reading by the Parliament.
Previously, the Parliamentary Group on Improving the Media Law has produced several amendments to seven laws, including the Law on Personal Data Protection. Experts recommended that media outlets need not register as an operator of personal data so that this measure cannot be interpreted as an impediment to their work.
Likewise, experts recommended to define the personal data of public interest and stipulate that, when processing personal data of public interest, for the media to be exempted from the obligation to obtain the consent of the person they report about or the approval of special bodies for this purpose if data are collected as part of a journalistic investigation or a feature story on topics of public interest.
Note that the draft law prepared by the National Center for Personal Data Protection does not contain such provisions and that Speaker of the Parliament, Andrian Candu, signed both draft laws.
Freedom House's Representative in Moldova believes that the draft worked out by NCPDP will decrease even more the journalists’ access to personal data of public interest. She mentioned that the European law on personal data protection is not as tough in relation to journalists as proposed in the Moldovan draft. ‘Normally, if we take into account the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), approved and enacted in the EU, the media’s application should only state that the information x, y and z is requested for journalistic purposes’, said Tatiana Puiu.
This draft law was already included on the agenda of the Parliamentary Committee for Culture, Education, Research, Youth, Sport and Media.
