Article 85 GDPR

← Article 85 - Processing and freedom of expression and information →
Chapter 1: General provisions Article 1: Subject-matter and objectives Article 2: Material scope Article 3: Territorial scope Article 4: Definitions Chapter 2: Principles Article 5: Principles relating to processing of personal data Article 6: Lawfulness of processing Article 7: Conditions for consent Article 8: Conditions applicable to child’s consent in relation to information society services Article 9: Processing of special categories of personal data Article 10: Processing of personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences Article 11: Processing which does not require identification Chapter 3: Rights of the data subject Article 12: Transparent information, communication and modalities for the exercise of the rights of the data subject Article 13: Information to be provided where personal data are collected from the data subject Article 14: Information to be provided where personal data have not been obtained from the data subject Article 15: Right of access by the data subject Article 16: Right to rectification Article 17: Right to erasure (‘right to be forgotten’) Article 18: Right to restriction of processing Article 19: Notification obligation regarding rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing Article 20: Right to data portability Article 21: Right to object Article 22: Automated individual decision-making, including profiling Article 23: Restrictions Chapter 4: Controller and processor Article 24: Responsibility of the controller Article 25: Data protection by design and by default Article 26: Joint controllers Article 27: Representatives of controllers or processors not established in the Union Article 28: Processor Article 29: Processing under the authority of the controller or processor Article 30: Records of processing activities Article 31: Cooperation with the supervisory authority Article 32: Security of processing Article 33: Notification of a personal data breach to the supervisory authority Article 34: Communication of a personal data breach to the data subject Article 35: Data protection impact assessment Article 36: Prior consultation Article 37: Designation of the data protection officer Article 38: Position of the data protection officer Article 39: Tasks of the data protection officer Article 40: Codes of conduct Article 41: Monitoring of approved codes of conduct Article 42: Certification Article 43: Certification bodies Chapter 5: Transfers of personal data Article 44: General principle for transfers Article 45: Transfers on the basis of an adequacy decision Article 46: Transfers subject to appropriate safeguards Article 47: Binding corporate rules Article 48: Transfers or disclosures not authorised by Union law Article 49: Derogations for specific situations Article 50: International cooperation for the protection of personal data Chapter 6: Supervisory authorities Article 51: Supervisory authority Article 52: Independence Article 53: General conditions for the members of the supervisory authority Article 54: Rules on the establishment of the supervisory authority Article 55: Competence Article 56: Competence of the lead supervisory authority Article 57: Tasks Article 58: Powers Article 59: Activity reports Chapter 7: Cooperation and consistency Article 60: Cooperation between the lead supervisory authority and the other supervisory authorities concerned Article 61: Mutual assistance Article 62: Joint operations of supervisory authorities Article 63: Consistency mechanism Article 64: Opinion of the Board Article 65: Dispute resolution by the Board Article 66: Urgency procedure Article 67: Exchange of information Article 68: European Data Protection Board Article 69: Independence Article 70: Tasks of the Board Article 71: Reports Article 72: Procedure Article 73: Chair Article 74: Tasks of the Chair Article 75: Secretariat Article 76: Confidentiality Chapter 8: Remedies, liability and penalties Article 77: Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority Article 78: Right to an effective judicial remedy against a supervisory authority Article 79: Right to an effective judicial remedy against a controller or processor Article 80: Representation of data subjects Article 81: Suspension of proceedings Article 82: Right to compensation and liability Article 83: General conditions for imposing administrative fines Article 84: Penalties Chapter 9: Specific processing situations Article 85: Processing and freedom of expression and information Article 86: Processing and public access to official documents Article 87: Processing of the national identification number Article 88: Processing in the context of employment Article 89: Safeguards and derogations relating to processing for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes Article 90: Obligations of secrecy Article 91: Existing data protection rules of churches and religious associations Chapter 10: Delegated and implementing acts Article 92: Exercise of the delegation Article 93: Committee procedure Chapter 11: Final provisions Article 94: Repeal of Directive 95: /46: /EC Article 95: Relationship with Directive 20: 02: /58: /EC Article 96: Relationship with previously concluded Agreements Article 97: Commission reports Article 98: Review of other Union legal acts on data protection Article 99: Entry into force and application

Legal Text

Article 85 - Processing and freedom of expression and information

1. Member States shall by law reconcile the right to the protection of personal data pursuant to this Regulation with the right to freedom of expression and information, including processing for journalistic purposes and the purposes of academic, artistic or literary expression.

2. For processing carried out for journalistic purposes or the purpose of academic artistic or literary expression, Member States shall provide for exemptions or derogations from CHAPTER II (principles),CHAPTER III (rights of the data subject),CHAPTER IV (controller and processor),CHAPTER V (transfer of personal data to third countries or international organisations),CHAPTER VI (independent supervisory authorities),CHAPTER VII (cooperation and consistency) and CHAPTER IX (specific data processing situations) if they are necessary to reconcile the right to the protection of personal data with the freedom of expression and information.

3. Each Member State shall notify to the Commission the provisions of its law which it has adopted pursuant to paragraph 2 and, without delay, any subsequent amendment law or amendment affecting them.

Relevant Recitals

- Recital 153

Commentary

(1) Reconciling data protection rules with freedom of expression, including academic, artistic or literary expression

Data protection legislation is certainly aimed at reducing or at least controlling the amount of information circulating in the system. In order to process an individual's personal data, it is necessary, among other things, to respect certain principles, to comply with requests to exercise the data subject's rights, including deletion, and more generally to comply with the obligations incumbent on the data controller (organisational and security measures, international transfer of data, submission to the scrutiny of supervisory authorities). In other words, the processing of personal data is not a simple activity.

At the same time, the GDPR recognises that there are many other areas of human and social experience that require the processing of personal data in relation to which it is not always appropriate to apply the full data protection framework. In doing so, the law maker accepts an intrinsic limit to the very applicability of the GDPR (or at least some its parts). In other words, the GDPR recognises that a journalist, academic, artist or writer, are allowed to fulfil their respective social function freely, and should not always be subject to all the stringent requirements provided for by the Data Protection Regulation.

Article 85(1) deals precisely with offering a legal framework to reconcile the data subject’s right to data protection with the performance of equally crucial interest of proving society with free, informed and unencumbered information (regardless of whether it refers to journalistic, scientific, artistic or literary expression). What such “reconciliation” consists of is mostly a matter of necessity, as specified in Article 85(2) below.

(2) Exemptions

Under Article 85(2) GDPR, for processing carried out for journalistic purposes or the purpose of academic, artistic or literary expression, Member States shall provide for exemptions or derogations from Chapter II (principles), Chapter III (rights of the data subject), Chapter IV (controller and processor), Chapter V (transfer of personal data to third countries or international organisations), Chapter VI (independent supervisory authorities), Chapter VII (cooperation and consistency) and Chapter IX (specific data processing situations) if they are necessary to reconcile the right to the protection of personal data with the freedom of expression and information. The extent of what is "necessary" for this purpose is necessarily a matter of interpretation by the national and European courts.

Scope of the exceptions within the GDPR framework

As mentioned above, the GDPR recognizes the need to protect freedom of expression (whatever the form) and authorises Member State to adopt, where necessary, statutory derogations to a large part of the GDPR itself, including data processing principles, data subject's rights, rules on international transfers, even the very subjection to the scrutiny of the supervisory authorities. In other words, much (if not everything) seems to be abstractly possible in order to protect freedom of expression.

On this point, we note that such favourable treatment does not seem to be reserved for the protection of other primary interests such as those provided for by Article 23 GDPR (to which we refer for a complete analysis of the relevant discipline). National security, for example, may allow derogations to the GDPR, but only to the data subject's rights, and only on condition that such restriction "respects the essence of the fundamental rights and freedoms" and is "necessary and proportionate [...] in a democratic society".

Conversely, when freedom of expression (including artistic, literary or academic expression) is taken into account, the GDPR authorises much broader restrictions as described above. In other words, it seems that the GDPR restrictions justified by overriding interests such as national security, defence, crime prevention (Article 23(1)(a-j) GDPR) allow for far fewer GDPR restrictions than those granted by freedom of expression.

Necessary to reconcile

The core of this provision is clearly the concept expressed in the final part of paragraph 2 "necessary to reconcile". Member States may therefore reduce the scope of a principle or right, or modify the obligations of the controller, only if this is "necessary to reconcile" the GDPR with the exercise of freedoms of expression and information, including academic, artistic or literary freedom.

Careful commentators, whose conclusions we fully share, note that in all cases the exception must be justified by a communication purpose. For example, a proportionate exemption will rightfully apply to an artistic photo meant for an exhibition but not to the data of buyers the art gallery holds for its economic activity. In the latter case, the exemption is not necessary to safeguard the artist’s freedom of artistic expression (but only a rather unjustified privilege).

Freedom of expression and information

On this point, the first question concerns the extent of the concept of 'expression'. In general, there seems to be a sort of overlap between the notion of "expression" and that of “journalism”. Theoretically, therefore, the privilege stemming from – the national implementation of – Article 85 would only be granted to those who qualify as journalists.

In theory, this approach may pose considerable problems for those who are not professional journalists. In practice, however, the problem loses part of its relevance. In fact, according to Recital 153, the term "journalism" is to be interpreted broadly. Processing for journalistic purposes therefore includes data processing which is in connection with the expression of an opinion or aimed at creating one within the public. In particular, the aforementioned Recital clarifies, the privilege does not only apply to the classic professional press, but also to the audiovisual sector, i.e. telemedia and radio, as well as for news and press archives. In addition, people without journalistic training also benefit from the exemption insofar as they carry out investigative research activities.

However, data processing carried out for purposes that are not primarily aimed at informing the public is not privileged. For example, the handling of suppliers or employee data for technical or administrative reasons is therefore not covered by Article 85.

Public interest

In its judgment on Google Spain clarifies the relationship between data protection and freedom of information. According to this, courts must balance the sensitivity of the information with the public interest in knowing it.

Equally relevant to this issue are the indications offered by the European Court of Human Rights. In fact, under Article 52(3) of the EU Charter, “in so far as this Charter contains rights which correspond to rights guaranteed by the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the meaning and scope of those rights shall be the same as those laid down by the said Convention”. Since the right to freedom of expression is equally protected by either Article 8 of the EU Charter and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, further guidance on Article 85 GDPR on Article 85 GDPR can be found in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (“ECHR”).

The ECHR's case-law has consistently recognized the role of the press for the proper functioning of a democratic society. In this sense, media not only serve as “public watchdog” but also contribute to producing and circulating information and ideas in the public interest. “Freedom of the press,” the Court has stated, “gives politicians the opportunity to reflect and comment on the preoccupations of public opinion; it thus enables everyone to participate in the free political debate which is at the very core of the concept of a democratic society”. Furthermore, the Court has consistently made clear that the right to privacy protected by Article 8 of the Convention and the right to freedom of expression “are equal rights that states must balance, based on the criteria the Court has identified in its caselaw”.

In the case ECHR, Von Hannover v. Germany, 7.2.2012, the Court found that two photographs depicting a royal family on holiday and published in two German newspapers violated the right to privacy pursuant to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights because they did not reflect any matter of public interest detailed in the accompanying text. However, a third photograph depicted a Prince in poor health, and since the health of the Prince was a matter of public concern the ECHR found no violation of Article 8.  In reaching its ruling the ECHR set out the criteria which domestic courts should follow when balancing the right to privacy against the right to freedom of expression. Firstly, whether the information contributes to a debate of general interest; second, how well known is the person concerned and the subject matter of the report; thirdly, the prior conduct of the person concerned; fourthly, content, form and consequences of the publication; and fifth, the circumstances in which the photos were taken.

Artistic, literary and academic expression

From a systematic point of view, artistic, literary or academic expression seem to be equated with journalistic expression (in the sense just seen above). For this reason, in the absence of more specific indications from both the ECJ and ECHR, it seems reasonable to apply to these sectors the same conclusions and principles. In this vein, the exemption would be valid for a photo (book or article) containing personal data, but only if is intended to be published, for example, in an art gallery (library or scientific journal). Conversely, data processing carried out by the photographer (writer or academic) which is not intended for public discussion (e.g. the record of the gallery's customers) will not fall within the scope of the exception. On this matter, very much obviously depends on the national implementation of Article 85. At present, not all European countries have specific legislation on artistic, literary or academic expression. This contributes in no small measure to the uncertainties surrounding the processing of personal data in the mentioned areas.

(3) Notification to the Commission

Each Member State shall notify to the Commission the provisions of its law which it has adopted pursuant to paragraph 2 and, without delay, any subsequent amendment law or amendment affecting them. The actual national transposition of these exceptions must be notified immediately to the Commission. Indeed, there is a need for monitoring of the GDPR exemption measures to be taken by individual Member States.

Decisions

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