The problem of the right to be forgotten from the perspective of self-regulation in journalism

Abstract

The development of online journalism has facilitated easy access to newspapers' archives by the general public. On occasion this has generated problems for people who have appeared in the news and now have to deal with events from their past life. The management of the right to be forgotten goes beyond the judicial realm, and takes on an ethical component. In this study, we investigate how journalistic institutions act in respect to the right to be forgotten, paying particular attention to those European media which have stated their position regarding the issue. The initiatives are few and the debate appears to have been relegated to an internal problem within each medium.