NCPDP Wants to Draw Up a Code of Conduct for Media. The Press Council Secretary: ‘You Should Not Tell Journalists What to Do’

The National Center for Personal Data Protection (NCPDP) plans to develop a Code of Conduct for the media on how journalists should exercise their right to process such data. The Secretary of the Press Council Petru Macovei believes that, if there is a self-regulation body and a Journalist’s Code of Ethics which has certain recommendations on processing of personal data, no rules imposed from the outside are needed.

Discussions about this NCPDP initiative took place on Wednesday, 22 May, at the office of the institution and were attended by representatives of civil society, Center employees and foreign experts.
The resident adviser of the Twinning Project at NCPDP Jekaterina Macuka said that draft document of conduct for the media of the Republic of Moldova will be soon prepared, while representatives of the specialised associations could come up with suggestions to amend it. Thus, adviser’s opinion is that the aim is to harmonise the national law on personal data protection with the European one, including with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which provides for assistance in drawing up more Codes of Conduct for different sectors – health, finance, law enforcement, electoral process, media, video surveillance and electronic communication.

Jekaterina Macuka specified that the signatories of the relevant Codes will commit to observe the legislation on protection of personal data and will be responsible for violating the law. Macuka added that such Code of Conduct is also necessary for influential people who express themselves in the social networks.
Secretary of the Press Council Petru Macovei, who was present at the discussions, highlighted that Moldovan journalists most often face the issue of access to information – authorities refused to provide information of public interest invoking the personal data protection. According to the expert, given that there is a self-regulation body and a Journalist’s Code of Ethics, no rules imposed from the outside are needed. You should not tell journalists what to do and what not to do – only local journalistic guild can do it. ‘If you want to draw up an act for influencers from Instagram, I am sure it will be for communicators, Macovei said.
The Secretary of the Press Council emphasized that the European directives are also often misinterpreted in the Republic of Moldova, justifying the protection of personal data and reminded that new Journalist’s Code of Ethics stipulated clear recommendations on the use of personal data by journalists.

Note that the need to approve such Codes of Conduct is included in the draft Law on the Processing of Personal Data approved in the first reading by the previous Parliament.

Photo source: Maria Dastic