Page 150 - Law and the Media

The Data Protection Act 1998
If a person issues court proceedings against a media organization or journalist in relation to
personal data concerning journalism, art or literature which is:

being processed only for the purpose of journalism, art or literature with a view to
publication, and

had not been published by the data controller at any time other than within the 24
hours before the claim of exemption

the court will stay the proceedings until the Data Protection Commissioner can determine the
application, or the data controller abandons the claim to exemption. This provision is
intended to prevent the granting of injunctions that prevent the publication of personal or
sensitive personal data.

7.2.7 Criminal offences

Section 55 of the DPA creates a number of criminal offences, including unlawfully obtaining
or disclosing personal information or offering to sell personal data. Those working in the
media must be particularly careful when obtaining personal information about the subject of
an article or programme in order to avoid committing such an offence.

7.3 Access to Personal Files Act 1987

Files that are held manually are subject to the provisions of the Access to Personal Files Act
1987. However, this Act is of extremely limited application. The provisions of the Access to
Personal Files Act only apply to files held by social services and housing departments. The
relevant authority that holds such files has an obligation to provide access to the records and
to maintain accurate records as provided for by prescribed regulations.

It is also possible to obtain access to personal medical records under the Access to Health
Records Act 1990 and to environmental information under the Environment Information
Regulations 1992.

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