The freedom of information takes priority over the right to privacy
By summary order dated March 23, 2015, the Paris civil court of general jurisdiction (Tribunal de grande instance) considered that the publication of a press article containing information on a criminal case which was finally dismissed responded to a legitimate interest of information and did not justify its deletion as it was not patently unlawful.
In this case, the newspaper 20 Minutes published an article in April 2011 related to rape charges against a professional rider. As the case was dismissed, the rider requested to insert a right of reply in the publication. However, the amending text published by the newspaper did not match the text required by the plaintiff. The rider then requested the deletion of the article, its anonymization and de-indexation on the basis of the provisions related to the right to privacy, in particular article 9 of the French civil Code and article 38 of the French Data protection Act of January 6, 1978.
The Paris civil Court of general jurisdiction pointed out the need to reconcile the right to privacy and protection of personal data with the right to freedom of expression and information, as they all represent fundamental rights. In this case, the Court ruled that the data processing was necessary to meet the legitimate interest of the editor. It also ruled that there was no abuse of freedom of expression since the information involved a person with a professional practice requiring the public and managing an activity accessible to children in particular.
Therefore, the Paris Court considered that the publication of the article and the absence of correction in the exact terms required by the plaintiff were not patently unlawful and did not justify the deletion, anonymization and deindexation of the article.
Tags:
Juris Initiative – Behring – Anne-Solène Gay – privacy – data protection – data protection act – freedom of press – right to information – deindexation – predominant interest to information – anonymization
