ΔΔΚ - 688/2022
Cyprus court upholds €10,000 fine against media group for disclosing financial data.
A Cypriot court has upheld a €10,000 fine imposed by the Data Protection Authority (DPA) on a media group. The fine was issued over a TV report that disclosed a public figure's financial data. The court found that the media company failed to adequately balance journalistic freedom with data protection rights.
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The lesson from this incident
Full lessonA Cypriot media group failed to properly balance journalistic freedom against individuals' data protection rights, resulting in the unlawful broadcast of a public figure's financial information. The root cause was an inadequate internal review process to assess whether publishing personal financial data met the legal threshold of public interest journalism under GDPR principles. This case demonstrates that even media organizations are bound by data protection law and must implement editorial safeguards before airing sensitive personal data. Regulatory authorities are increasingly willing to enforce fines against media entities, signaling that 'journalistic privilege' is not a blanket exemption from data protection obligations.