In the Name of the Right to be Forgotten: New Legal and Policy Issues and Practices regarding Unpublishing Requests in Slovenian Online News Media

Abstract

The goal of this study is to explore the Right to Be Forgotten (RTBF) as a specific legal aspect of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) within the context of digital journalism and related media policy issues. We address this issue in cases where requests have been made to unpublish news items or other (visual) content from online media archives because they contain embarrassing, irrelevant and/or outdated, yet truthful content. To do this, we researched the editorial policies of five Slovenian online news media outlets in their responses to such unpublishing requests. First, we reviewed regulation and key legal decisions and then used in-depth semi-structured interviews with editors of these outlets. Our research showed that unpublishing requests from 2018 and 2019 cite or imply the RTBF as having an EU-wide legal basis, yet the media outlets analyzed have not established clear internal policies. This opens the door to inconsistent and/or arbitrary decisions. The legal foundations for unpublishing online news items are vague and, at least in Slovenia, subject to opposing interpretations which might lead to new restrictions on media freedom. To avoid additional potential for the manipulation of media, both legal and self-regulatory frameworks need to be updated and clarified.