GRAND CHAMBER
 
 
 
 
 
 
CASE OF SATAKUNNAN MARKKINAPÖRSSI OY AND SATAMEDIA OY v. FINLAND
 
(Application no. 931/13)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
JUDGMENT
 
 
STRASBOURG
 
27 June 2017
 
 
 
This judgment is final but it may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy and Satamedia Oy v. Finland,
The European Court of Human Rights, sitting as a Grand Chamber composed of:
 András Sajó, President, 
 Işıl Karakaş,
 Angelika Nußberger,
 Ganna Yudkivska,
 Luis López Guerra,
 Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska,
 Kristina Pardalos,
 Vincent A. De Gaetano,
 Paulo Pinto de Albuquerque,
 Helen Keller,
 Aleš Pejchal,
 Jon Fridrik Kjølbro,
 Síofra O’Leary,
 Carlo Ranzoni,
 Armen Harutyunyan,
 Pauliine Koskelo,
 Marko Bošnjak, judges,
and Lawrence Early, Jurisconsult,
Having deliberated in private on 14 September 2016 and on 5 April 2017,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on the last‑mentioned date:
PROCEDURE
1. The case originated in an application (no. 931/13) against the Republic of Finland lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by two Finnish limited liability companies, Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy and Satamedia Oy (“the applicant companies”) which had their seat in Kokemäki, Finland, on 18 December 2012. 2. The applicant companies were represented by Mr Pekka Vainio, a lawyer practising in Turku. The Finnish Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agents, first Mr Arto Kosonen and then Ms Krista Oinonen, both from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. 3. The applicant companies alleged, in particular, that their right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the Convention had been violated and that the length of the domestic proceedings had been excessive, in breach of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention. 4. The application was allocated to the Fourth Section of the Court (Rule 52 § 1 of the Rules of Court). On 21 July 2015 a Chamber of that Section, composed of Guido Raimondi, Päivi Hirvelä, George Nicolaou, Nona Tsotsoria, Krzysztof Wojtyczek, Faris Vehabović, and Yonko Grozev, judges, and also of Fatoş Aracı, Deputy Section Registrar, delivered its judgment. The concurring opinion of Judge Nicolaou and the dissenting opinion of Judge Tsotsoria were annexed to the judgment. On 21 October 2015 the applicant companies requested the referral of the case to the Grand Chamber in accordance with Article 43 of the Convention. On 14 December 2015 the panel of the Grand Chamber granted that request. 5. The composition of the Grand Chamber was determined according to the provisions of Article 26 §§ 4 and 5 of the Convention and Rule 24 of the Rules of Court. At the final deliberations, Helen Keller, substitute judge, replaced Alena Poláčková, who was unable to take part in the further consideration of the case (Rule 24 § 3). 6. The applicants and the Government each filed written observations (Rule 59 § 1) on the merits. In addition, third-party observations were received from the European Information Society Institute, the Nordplus Law and Media Network, Article 19, the Access to Information Programme and Társaság a Szabadságjogokért, which had been given leave by the President to intervene in the written procedure (Article 36 § 2 of the Convention and Rule 44 § 3). 7. A hearing took place in public in the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg, on 14 September 2016 (Rule 59 § 3). There appeared before the Court:
(a)  for the Government
Ms K. Oinonen, Director, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Agent,
Ms A. Talus, Senior Adviser, Ministry of Justice
Ms H. hynynen, Senior Adviser, Finnish Tax Administration,
Ms S. Sistonen, Legal Officer, Ministry for Foreign Affairs,
Mr A. Kosonen, Director (ret.), Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Advisers;
(b)  for the applicant companies
Mr P. Vainio, Lawyer, Counsel. The Court heard addresses by Ms K. Oinonen and Mr P. Vainio and the replies given by them to questions put by the judges. THE FACTS
I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE
A. Background to the case
8. Since 1994 the first applicant company, Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy collected data from the Finnish tax authorities for the purpose of publishing information about natural persons’ taxable income and assets in the Veropörssi newspaper. Several other publishing and media companies also publish such data which, pursuant to Finnish law, are accessible to the public (see paragraph 39 below for an explanation of the Finnish access to information regime). 9. In 2002 Veropörssi appeared 17 times, with each issue concentrating on a certain geographical area of the country. The data published comprised the surnames and forenames of approximately 1.2 million natural persons whose annual taxable income exceeded certain thresholds, mainly from 60,000 to 80,000 Finnish marks (approximately 10,000 to 13,500 euros (EUR)), as well as the amount, to the nearest EUR 100, of their earned and unearned income and taxable net assets. When published in the newspaper, the data were set out in the form of an alphabetical list and organised according to municipality and income bracket. 10. The first applicant company worked in cooperation with the second applicant company, Satamedia Oy, and both were owned by the same shareholders. In 2003 the first applicant company started to transfer personal data published in Veropörssi, in the form of CD-ROM discs, to the second applicant company which, together with a mobile telephone operator, started a text-messaging service (SMS service). By sending a person’s name to a service number, taxation information could be obtained concerning that person, on the requesting person’s mobile telephone, if information was available in the database or register created by the second applicant company. This database was created using personal data already published in the newspaper and transferred in the form of CD-ROM discs to the second applicant company. From 2006 the second applicant company also published Veropörssi. 11. It transpires from the case file that in 1997 the Minister of Justice requested that the police instigate a criminal investigation into the publishing activities of the applicant companies. No information is contained in the file as to the outcome of this request or of any subsequent investigation. 12. In September 2000 and November 2001, the applicant companies ordered taxation data from the Finnish National Board of Taxation (verohallitus, skattestyrelsen). Following the first order, the Board requested an opinion from the Data Protection Ombudsman, on the basis of which the Board invited the applicant companies to provide further information regarding their request and indicating that the data could not be disclosed if Veropörssi continued to be published in its usual form. The applicant companies subsequently cancelled their data request and paid people to collect taxation data manually at the local tax offices. B. First set of proceedings (2004 – 2009)
1. Decisions of the Data Protection Ombudsman and the Data Protection Board
13. On an unspecified date, probably in 2003, the Data Protection Ombudsman (tietosuojavaltuutettu, dataombudsmannen) contacted the applicant companies and advised them that, although accessing and publishing taxation data were not prohibited as such, they had to cease publishing such data in the manner and to the extent that had been the case in 2002, when they had published data concerning the 2001 tax year. The applicant companies refused to abide by this request, which they considered violated their right to freedom of expression. 14. By a letter of 10 April 2003 the Data Protection Ombudsman asked the Data Protection Board (tietosuojalautakunta, datasekretessnämnden) to prohibit the applicant companies from processing the taxation data in the manner and to the extent that had been the case in 2002 and from passing those data to the SMS service. He claimed that under the Personal Data Act the companies had no right to collect, store or pass on personal data and that the derogation provided by that Act concerning journalism did not, in his view, apply to the present case. The collecting of taxation information and the passing of such information to third parties were not for journalistic purposes and therefore were not covered by the derogation in the Personal Data Act, but rather constituted the processing of personal data in which the applicant companies had no right to engage. 15. On 7 January 2004 the Data Protection Board dismissed the Data Protection Ombudsman’s request. It found that the derogation laid down in the Personal Data Act concerning journalism applied to the present case. As regards the SMS service, the data used in the service had already been published in Veropörssi and therefore the Act did not apply to it. 2. Decision of the Helsinki Administrative Court (2005)
16. By letter dated 12 February 2004 the Data Protection Ombudsman appealed to the Helsinki Administrative Court (hallinto-oikeus, förvaltningsdomstolen) reiterating his request that the applicant companies be prohibited from processing taxation data in the manner and to the extent that had been the case in 2002 and from passing such data to the SMS service. 17. On 29 September 2005 the Administrative Court rejected the appeal. It found that the derogation laid down in the Personal Data Act concerning journalism, which had its origins in Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data was adopted (OJ 1995 L 281, p. 31, hereafter “the Data Protection Directive”), should not be interpreted too strictly, as an overly strict interpretation would favour protection of privacy over freedom of expression. That court considered that Veropörssi had a journalistic purpose and that it was also in the public interest to publish such data. It emphasised, in particular, that the published data were already accessible to the general public. The journalism derogation thus applied in the circumstances of the present case. As regards the SMS service, the Administrative Court agreed with the Data Protection Board that, as the information had already been published in the newspaper, the Act did not apply to it. 3. Appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court (2005)
18. By letter dated 26 October 2005 the Data Protection Ombudsman lodged an appeal with the Supreme Administrative Court (korkein hallinto-oikeus, högsta förvaltningsdomstolen), reiterating the grounds of appeal already presented before the Helsinki Administrative Court. 19. On 8 February 2007 the Supreme Administrative Court decided to request a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Communities (which became the Court of Justice of the European Union on 1 December 2009, hereafter the “CJEU”) on the interpretation of Directive 95/46/EC. 4. Preliminary ruling of the CJEU (2008)
20. On 16 December 2008 the Grand Chamber of the CJEU handed down its judgment (see Case C-73/07 Tietosuojavaltuutettu v. Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy and Satamedia Oy, EU:C:2008:727). It found, first of all, that the activities in question constituted “processing of personal data” within the meaning of Article 3(1) of Directive 95/46. According to the CJEU, activities involving the processing of personal data such as those relating to personal data files which contained solely, and in unaltered form, material that had already been published in the media, also fell within the scope of the Directive (see paragraphs 37 and 49 of the judgment). The object of the derogation in Article 9 of the Directive for the processing of personal data carried out solely for journalistic purposes was to reconcile the protection of privacy with freedom of expression. In order to take account of the importance of the latter in every democratic society, it was necessary to interpret notions relating to that freedom, such as journalism, broadly. However, in order to achieve a balance between those two fundamental rights, the protection of the fundamental right to privacy required that the derogations and limitations in relation to the protection of data had to apply only in so far as were strictly necessary (see paragraphs 54 and 56 of the judgment). Journalistic activities were not limited to media undertakings and could be undertaken for profit-making purposes (see paragraph 61). Furthermore, when interpreting the journalistic purposes derogation, account must be taken of the evolution and proliferation of methods of communication and the dissemination of information. Activities such as those involved in the domestic proceedings, relating to data from documents which were in the public domain under domestic legislation, could be classified as “journalistic activities” if their sole object was the disclosure to the public of information, opinions or ideas, irrespective of the medium which was used to transmit them. Whether or not that was the case, was for the national court to determine (see paragraphs 60-62 of the judgment). 5. Decision of the Supreme Administrative Court (2009)
21. On 23 September 2009 the Supreme Administrative Court, applying the ruling of the CJEU and with reference to the case-law on Article 10 of the Convention, quashed the impugned decisions of the Data Protection Board and the Helsinki Administrative Court and referred the case back to the Data Protection Board for a fresh examination with a view to issuing an order pursuant to section 44(1) of the Personal Data Act. The Supreme Administrative Court requested the Board to prohibit the processing of taxation data by the applicant companies in the manner and to the extent carried out in 2002. 22. In its legal assessment, the Supreme Administrative Court gave the following reasoning:
“Scope of the matter
The present case does not concern the question of the extent to which taxation data and official documents concerning taxation are public under the Act on the Public Disclosure and Confidentiality of Tax Information. Nor does it concern the right to publish taxation data as such but only the processing of personal data. Therefore, there is no issue of possible prior interference with the content of the publications, but rather an assessment of whether the legal conditions set for personal data processing and protection of privacy are fulfilled. The reconciliation of protection of privacy with freedom of expression is part of the legal assessment of personal data processing in the matter.
... Reconciliation of the protection of privacy and freedom of expression
Interpretation of the exception concerning journalistic purposes in the Data Protection Directive. The Court of Justice of the European Communities emphasised that the purpose of the Data Protection Directive is to ensure that when processing their personal data, the Member States guarantee individuals’ fundamental rights and freedoms, and in particular their right to privacy, while allowing the free movement of such information. The Court further emphasised that these fundamental rights must be reconciled to a certain extent with the fundamental right to freedom of expression, and that this task belongs to the Member States.
... It therefore appears from the aforementioned ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Communities that the concept of journalism must, as such, be interpreted broadly within the meaning of Article 9 of the Directive, that, on the other hand, the protection of privacy can be derogated from only in so far as it is strictly necessary, and that this task of reconciliation of the two fundamental rights is the task of the Member States. Ensuring proper balance between the rights and interests at stake, including the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Communities’ legal order, is the task of the domestic authorities and courts (see also case C-101/01 Lindqvist). Interpretation of the exception in the Personal Data Act concerning journalistic purposes. ... It transpires from the preparatory work on the Personal Data Act (HE 96/1998 vp) that the purpose of the adoption of the Personal Data Act was to maintain the existing situation in respect of journalistic files kept by the media, provided it remained within the limits imposed by the Data Protection Directive. Therefore, in order to conclude that processing of personal data is conducted for journalistic purposes within the meaning of the Personal Data Act, inter alia, that data must be used solely for journalistic activities and the data must not be made available to persons other than those involved in those journalistic activities. When interpreting section 2(5) of the Personal Data Act, particular regard must be had to the fact that it concerns the reconciliation of two fundamental rights, namely the freedom of expression and the protection of privacy.
... The case-law of the European Court of Human Rights has also adopted a position on reconciling freedom of expression with the protection of privacy. The Court has held, inter alia in its von Hannover judgment of 24 June 2004, that the press plays an essential role in a democratic society. Although it must not overstep certain bounds, in particular in respect of the reputation and rights of others, its duty is nevertheless to impart, in a manner consistent with its obligations and responsibilities, information and ideas on all matters of public interest. On the other hand, the Court also held in the above-mentioned judgment that increased vigilance as regards the protection of private life was necessary in order to contend with the new communications technologies which make it possible to store and reproduce personal data. According to the Court, when balancing the protection of private life against freedom of expression, the decisive criterion had to be the contribution made by publishing the data to a debate of public interest. If a publication is only meant to satisfy the curiosity of a certain audience, freedom of expression must be interpreted more narrowly. In the present case, it must be assessed to what extent the impugned processing of personal data as carried out in the course of the companies’ activities falls within the scope of the exception concerning journalistic purposes that is provided for in section 2(5) of the Personal Data Act. The starting point is whether the aim of their activities was to disclose information, opinions or ideas to the public. In this assessment, account must be taken of whether or to what extent those activities can be seen as contributing to a debate in a democratic society rather than solely satisfying the curiosity of certain individuals. Processing of personal taxation data in the background file of Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy and in the Veropörssi newspaper
Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy collected for the Veropörssi newspaper taxation data from different tax offices in which individuals’ names appear together with information on their taxable income. As mentioned above, the case concerns the processing of personal data to which the general requirements in Chapter 2 of the Personal Data Act are applicable, unless the Act allows for an exception from the application of these provisions. It must first of all be assessed whether the processing of personal data in the company’s background file before the publication of such data in the Veropörssi newspaper falls within the scope of the exception concerning journalistic purposes. From the preparatory work on the amendment of the Personal Data File Act (HE 311/1993 vp), which was the Act in force before the Personal Data Act, it transpires in particular that the press considers that the right to freely disclose information also requires journalists to be able, in advance, to freely collect and store information. Restricting the processing of personal data at this stage, that is to say before publication, could in practice mean that a prior decision is taken on what can be published. Such an outcome would be incompatible with the fundamental right guaranteeing freedom of expression. The issue at stake in the present case concerns publicly accessible personal data received from the tax authorities. The collection and processing of such data in the company’s internal files for the purpose of the company’s publishing activities can, on the basis of above-mentioned grounds, be regarded as processing of personal data for journalistic purposes. The processing of large quantities of such data from the various municipal taxation records may well be necessary as background information for the purpose of the editing of a publication concerning taxation and from the point of view of free communication and open debate. At this stage of activities the protection of the privacy of the persons concerned can also be sufficiently secured, provided that the data collected and stored in the file are protected against unlawful processing as required by section 32 of the Personal Data Act. Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy has published the personal data collected from the tax offices as wide-ranging municipality-based catalogues in the Veropörssi newspaper. As already stated above, in this regard too it is a question of processing personal data within the meaning of section 3(2) of the Personal Data Act. As part of the case file, the Supreme Administrative Court had at its disposal Veropörssi newspaper no. 14/2004, published by Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy and covering the Helsinki metropolitan area. In this respect it must be decided whether a derogation is possible from the requirements relating to the processing of personal data on the basis of section 2(5) of the Act, that is to say whether the impugned processing of personal data by publishing those data in the Veropörssi newspaper came within the scope of the exception provided for journalistic purposes.
... It transpires from the preparatory work on the Personal Data Act (HE 96/1998 vp) that the processing of data in the background file referred to in the Personal Data File Act must relate solely to journalistic activities and that the processed data must not be made available to any persons not engaged in journalistic activities. The purpose of section 2(5) of the Personal Data Act was to maintain the existing situation in respect of journalistic files kept by the media, within the limits allowed by the Data Protection Directive. Therefore, the purpose of the Personal Data Act in this respect can be seen as guaranteeing the possibility for free journalistic work prior to the publication of information. The term “processing of personal data for journalistic purposes” cannot be regarded as covering the large–scale publication of the journalistic background file, almost verbatim, as catalogues, albeit split into different parts and sorted by municipality. Since the disclosure of registered data on such a scale is equivalent to the disclosure of the entire background file kept for journalistic purposes by the company, such disclosure does not represent solely an expression of information, opinions or ideas. As stated above, with a view to reconciling the requirements of freedom of expression with the protection of privacy, the collection of data before publication has been made permissible under section 2(5) of the Personal Data Act without any requirement of compliance with general conditions set out in section 8 of the Act. By contrast, the processing of personal data collected in the company’s background file by publishing it and by rendering it available to the general public to the extent that has been done in the present case, and beyond the scope of the minimum requirements set out in section 2(5) of the Act, cannot be regarded as compatible with the purpose of the Personal Data Act. Open public-interest debate, the monitoring of the exercise of power in society and the freedom to criticise, which are necessary in a democratic society, do not require the disclosure of the personal data of specific individuals in the manner and to the extent described above. When regard is also had to the foregoing comments on the narrow interpretation of section 2(4) of the Personal Data Act and the fact that a strict literal interpretation of that provision would result in a situation incompatible with the purpose of the Act as regards protection of personal data, the processing of personal data with a view to publishing them in the Veropörssi newspaper, and as far as the contents of this publication itself are concerned, was not conducted for journalistic purposes within the meaning of the Personal Data Act.
... Having regard to sections 2(5) and 32 of the Personal Data Act and Article 9 of the Data Protection Directive, as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the European Communities in its preliminary ruling, the collection of personal data prior to its publication in the Veropörssi newspaper and its processing in the background file of Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy cannot as such be regarded as contrary to the regulations concerning the protection of personal data, provided that, inter alia, the data have been protected properly. However, with reference to all the clarifications on how and to what extent the personal data in the background file were further processed in the Veropörssi newspaper, Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy did in fact process personal data concerning natural persons in violation of the Personal Data Act. Handover of data in a CD-ROM
Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy handed over a CD-ROM containing the published data to Satamedia Oy so that the latter could start up an SMS service using that data. As mentioned above, that action amounts to the processing of personal data within the meaning of section 3(2) of the Personal Data Act. Having regard to the preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Communities and its effect on the interpretation of section 2(4) of the Personal Data Act, as well as all that has been said above about the processing of personal data in the Veropörssi newspaper, the handover to Satamedia Oy of personal data collected in the background file of Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy, even though they were published in the Veropörssi newspaper, cannot be regarded as processing of personal data for journalistic purposes within the meaning of Personal Data Act. Nor can the processing of personal data in such a manner be regarded as having been effected for journalistic purposes within the meaning of Article 9 of the Data Protection Directive. Therefore, in that regard too, Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy processed personal data in violation of the Personal Data Act. Processing of personal data for the realisation of a SMS service by Satamedia Oy
As stated above in the “Facts” section, Satamedia Oy handed over the above-mentioned personal data to a third company in order to start up a SMS service, which company operated the SMS service on behalf of Satamedia Oy. It was pointed out above that Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy had no right under the Personal Data Act to process the personal data at issue by handing it over to Satamedia Oy. Consequently, Satamedia Oy also had no right under the Personal Data Act to process personal data received in this manner. In addition, it follows from the preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Communities that the exception provided for in the Data Protection Directive, which concerns the processing of personal data for journalistic purposes, requires the disclosure of data to the public. According to section 2(1) of the Act on the Exercise of Freedom of Expression in Mass Media, the term “the public” in that Act refers to a group of freely determined message recipients. Satamedia Oy’s SMS service involves the company processing personal data relating to the taxation of a specific individual on the basis of a request by another individual. It therefore does not concern disclosure of data to the general public, as explained above, but replying to a request by an individual concerning the personal data of another individual. Open public-interest debate, the monitoring of the exercise of power in society and the freedom to criticise, which are necessary in a democratic society, do not require the possibility of processing the personal data of specific individuals as has been done in this case. Freedom of expression does not require any derogation from the protection of privacy in such a situation. The Court of Justice of the European Communities further stated in its preliminary ruling that the technical means used for the transfer of information is not relevant when assessing whether there is any question of activities undertaken solely for journalistic purposes. As regards the SMS service operated by Satamedia Oy, it is irrelevant that the data were transferred via mobile phones and text messages. Therefore, this is not a case of treating this mode of transmission of data differently from other modes of transmission. The assessment would be the same if the company processed, on the basis of a request by an individual, the personal data of another individual by using some other mode of transmission.”
C. Second set of proceedings (2009 – 2012)
23. Pursuant to the above-mentioned judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court, on 26 November 2009 the Data Protection Board prohibited the first applicant company from processing taxation data in the manner and to the extent that had been the case in 2002 and from forwarding that information to an SMS service. It found that the collection of personal data prior to its publication in Veropörssi and its processing in the background file of the first applicant company could not as such be regarded as contrary to the data protection rules, provided, inter alia, that the data had been protected properly. However, considering the manner and the extent to which the personal data in the background file had been published in Veropörssi, the first applicant company had processed personal data concerning natural persons in violation of the Personal Data Act. The second applicant company was prohibited from collecting, storing or forwarding to an SMS service any data received from the first applicant company’s database and published in Veropörssi. 24. By letter dated 15 December 2009, after the Data Protection Board had made its decision, the Data Protection Ombudsman asked the applicant companies to indicate what action they were envisaging in response to the Board’s decision. In their reply, the applicant companies asked for the Data Protection Ombudsman’s views on the conditions under which they could continue to publish public taxation data at least to a certain extent. In his reply the Data Protection Ombudsman stated, with reference to the decision of the Data Protection Board of 26 November 2009, that “when data on taxable income were collected in a database and published in large catalogues almost as it stood, the Personal Data Act was applicable...”. He reminded them of his duty to report any breach of the Personal Data Act to the police. 25. By letter dated 9 February 2010 the applicant companies appealed against the decision of the Data Protection Board to the Helsinki Administrative Court, which transferred the case to the Turku Administrative Court. They complained that the decision violated the Constitutional prohibition of censorship as well as their right to freedom of expression. According to the applicants, under domestic law, it was not possible to prevent publication of information on the basis of the amount of information to be published or of the means used for its publication. Nor was it possible to rely on the “public interest” as a criterion for preventing publication where preventive restriction of freedom of expression was concerned. Accepting that would mean that the authorities would be able to prevent publication if they thought that the publication did not promote discussion of a topic of public interest. 26. On 28 October 2010 the Turku Administrative Court rejected the applicant companies’ appeal. It found that the Supreme Administrative Court had stated in its decision of 2009 that the case concerned neither the public accessibility of taxation data nor the right to publish such information per se. As the court was now examining only the 2009 decision rendered by the Data Protection Board, it could not examine the issues which the Supreme Administrative Court had excluded from the scope of its 2009 decision. As the Board’s decision corresponded to the content of the latter decision, there was no reason to change it. 27. By letter dated 29 November 2010 the applicant companies further appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court. 28. On 18 June 2012 the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the judgment of the Turku Administrative Court, reiterating that the case concerned neither the right to publish taxation information as such, nor preventive censorship. D. Subsequent developments
29. According to the information submitted by the applicants, the SMS service was shut down after the 2009 decision of the Supreme Administrative Court was served on the applicant companies. The newspaper continued publishing taxation data in autumn 2009 when its content was only one fifth of the previous content. Since then the newspaper has not appeared. The Government, on the other hand, submitted that, according to the applicant companies’ website, Veropörssi was still being published on a regional basis in 2010 and 2011. Moreover, an Internet service continued to operate allowing anyone to request a natural person’s tax data concerning the year 2014 by filling in a form on the website in question. The requested tax information would then be delivered to the customer by phone call, text message or e-mail. 30. The editor-in-chief of Veropörssi lodged an application with the Court in 2010, complaining that the impugned decision of the Supreme Administrative Court violated his right to freedom of expression. On 19 November 2013 the application was declared inadmissible as being incompatible ratione personae with the provisions of the Convention (see Anttila v. Finland (dec.), no. 16248/10, 19 November 2013). 31. The first applicant company was declared bankrupt on 15 March 2016. The bankruptcy administration did not oppose the continuation of the present proceedings before the Court (see paragraph 94 below). II. RELEVANT DOMESTIC LAW AND PRACTICE
A. Constitutional provisions
32. Article 10 of the Constitution of Finland (Suomen perustuslaki, Finlands grundlag, Act no. 731/1999), which protects the right to private life, states:
“Everyone’s private life, honour and the sanctity of the home are guaranteed. More detailed provisions on the protection of personal data are laid down by an Act...”
33. Article 12 of the Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of expression, provides:
“Everyone has the freedom of expression. Freedom of expression entails the right to express, disseminate and receive information, opinions and other communications without prior prevention by anyone. More detailed provisions on the exercise of the freedom of expression are laid down by an Act. Provisions on restrictions relating to pictorial programmes that are necessary for the protection of children may be laid down by an Act.”
B. Personal Data Act
1. Provisions of the Personal Data Act
34. The relevant provisions of the Personal Data Act (henkilötietolaki, personsuppgiftslagen, Act no. 523/1999, as in force at the relevant time) provided:
“Chapter 1 – General provisions
Section 1 – Objectives
The objectives of this Act are to implement, in the processing of personal data, the protection of private life and the other basic rights which safeguard the right to privacy... Section 2 – Scope
(1) The provisions of this Act apply to the processing of personal data, unless otherwise provided elsewhere in the law. (2) This Act applies to the automatic processing of personal data. It applies also to other processing of personal data where the data constitute or are intended to constitute a personal data file or a part thereof.
... (4) This Act does not apply to personal data files containing, solely and in unaltered form, data that have been published by the media. (5) Unless otherwise provided in section 17, only sections 1-4, 32, 39(3), 40(1) and (3), 42, 44(2), 45-47, 48(2), 50, and 51 of this Act apply, where appropriate, to the processing of personal data for purposes of journalism or artistic or literary expression. Section 3 – Definitions
In this Act,
(1) personal data means any information on a private individual and any information on his or her personal characteristics or personal circumstances, where these are identifiable as concerning him or her or the members of his or her family or household;
(2) processing of personal data means the collection, recording, organisation, use, transfer, disclosure, storage, manipulation, combination, protection, deletion and erasure of personal data, as well as other measures directed at personal data;
(3) personal data file means a set of personal data, connected by a common use and processed fully or partially automatically or sorted into a card index, directory or other manually accessible form so that the data pertaining to a given person can be retrieved easily and at reasonable cost;
(4) controller means a person, corporation, institution or foundation, or a number of them, for the use of whom a personal data file is set up and who is entitled to determine the use of the file, or who has been designated as a controller by an Act;
(5) data subject means the person to whom the personal data pertain;
... Section 32 – Data security
(1) The controller shall carry out the technical and organisational measures necessary for securing personal data against unauthorised access, against accidental or unlawful destruction, manipulation, disclosure and transfer and against other unlawful processing...
... Section 44 – Orders of the Data Protection Board
At the request of the Data Protection Ombudsman, the Data Protection Board may:
(1) prohibit processing of personal data which is contrary to the provisions of this Act or the rules and regulations issued on the basis of this Act...
... (3) order that the operations pertaining to the file be ceased, if the unlawful conduct or neglect seriously compromise the protection of the privacy of the data subject or his or her interests or rights, provided that the file is not set up under a statutory scheme;
...”
35. Following the judgment of the CJEU of 2008 in the present case (see Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy and Satamedia Oy, cited above), section 2(4) of the Personal Data Act was repealed by an Act enacted on 3 December 2010. 36. Government Bill to Parliament HE 96/1998 vp provides background information regarding the journalistic purposes derogation in section 2(5) of the Personal Data Act. The definition of a database for journalistic purposes was derived from the previous Act but was modified in order to transpose the Data Protection Directive. According to the preparatory work, “a database for journalistic purposes means such databases as are intended to be used only in the context of the journalistic activity of the media and which are not accessible to others”. “Media” is taken to mean any kind of mass media, including news and photo agencies when they keep databases containing personal data used in media’s publishing activities or a news agency’s own publishing activities. Information collected for storage in a database for journalistic purposes can be used only in the context of a journalistic activity, and not, for example, for administrative or marketing purposes. It is also required that the circle of users of the database is limited such as to be accessible only to those persons involved in the journalistic activity. A database for journalistic purposes can be kept, for example, by a newspaper publisher, an individual journalist or a free-lance journalist. 2. Examples of application of the Personal Data Act
37. In a decision of 23 January 2015, the Helsinki Administrative Court held that public taxation data could be provided to media in mass deliveries in electronic format. However, neither freedom of expression as a fundamental right nor the preparatory work relating to legislation on the publicity of and access to taxation data supported an interpretation of the law to the effect that the applicant in that case – a representative of a media organisation which had requested data relating to 5.2 million persons (all natural persons earning more than 1 euro in Finland) – had the right to receive such data in electronic format for journalistic purposes. 38. In contrast, in his opinion of 5 July 2013, addressed to a complainant on another matter, the Data Protection Ombudsman held that the media organisation in question (Helsingin Sanomat) had processed data for journalistic purposes within the meaning and scope of the section 2(5) derogation. The latter had not published all of the personal data files collected by it for journalistic purposes, but had published data on a limited group of 10,000 persons considered to be the wealthiest people in Finland. The data published were accompanied by articles and presentations on some of those featured. C. Act on the Public Disclosure and Confidentiality of Tax Information
39. Sections 1-3 of the Act on the Public Disclosure and Confidentiality of Tax Information (laki verotustietojen julkisuudesta ja salassapidosta, lagen om offentlighet och sekretess i fråga om beskattningsuppgifter, Act no. 1346/1999) provide the following:
“Section 1 – Scope of the Act
This Act applies to documents concerning individual taxpayers which are submitted to or prepared by the tax administration (taxation documents) and the information contained therein (taxation information). The provisions concerning the taxpayer in this Act apply to other persons required to report information, and also to joint tax corporations.
... Section 2 – Relation to other provisions
The provisions of the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999) and the Personal Data Act (523/1999) apply to taxation documents and information unless otherwise provided by this or some other Act. Section 3 – Public disclosure of and right of access to taxation information
Taxation information is public to the extent provided in this Act. Everyone has the right to obtain information on a public taxation document in the possession of the tax administration as provided by the Act on the Openness of Government Activities, unless otherwise provided by this Act.”
40. According to section 5 of the Act, information on a taxpayer’s name, year of birth and municipality of domicile is public, as is the following information:
“(1) earned income taxable in State taxation;
(2) capital income and property taxable in State taxation;
(3) income taxable in municipal taxation;
(4) income and taxable net assets, municipal tax and the total amount of taxes and charges imposed;
(5) the total amount of withholding tax;
(6) the amount to be debited or the amount to be refunded in the final assessment for the tax year.
... The information referred to above in this section may be disclosed at the beginning of the November following the tax year, as valid on completion of the taxation.”
41. The preparatory work relating to section 5 of the Act indicates that the special regulation in section 16(3) of the Act on the Openness of Government Activities is applicable to data referred to in this section. It also indicates that the Personal Data Act does not restrict the collection of data for journalistic purposes and that the media can be given data referred to in section 5 for journalistic purposes, provided that there are no restrictions imposed by the rules on confidentiality. D. Act on the Openness of Government Activities
42. Section 1 (1) of the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (laki viranomaisten toiminnan julkisuudesta, lagen om offentlighet i myndigheternas verksamhet, Act no. 621/1999) provides that:
“Official documents shall be in the public domain, unless specifically provided otherwise in this Act or another Act.”
43. According to section 3 of the Act,
“[t]he objectives of the right of access and the duties of the authorities provided in this Act are to promote openness and good practice on information management in government, and to provide private individuals and corporations with an opportunity to monitor the exercise of public authority and the use of public resources, to freely form an opinion, to influence the exercise of public authority, and to protect their rights and interests.”
44. Section 9 of the same Act provides that every person has a right of access to an official document in the public domain. 45. According to section 13(2) of the Act:
“When requesting access to a secret document, a personal data filing system controlled by an authority or any other document, access to which can be granted only subject to certain conditions, the person requesting access shall, unless specifically provided otherwise, declare the use to which the information is to be put, as well as give the other details necessary for determining whether the conditions have been met and, where necessary, explain what arrangements have been made for the protection of the information.”
46. According to section 16(1)-(3) of the same Act,
“[a]ccess to an official document shall be by explaining its contents orally to the requester, by giving the document to be studied, copied or listened to in the offices of the authority, or by issuing a copy or a printout of the document. Access to the public contents of the document shall be granted in the manner requested, unless this would unreasonably inconvenience the activity of the authority owing to the volume of the documents, the inherent difficulty of copying or any other comparable reason. Access to the public information in a computerised register of the decisions of an authority shall be provided by issuing a copy in magnetic media or in some other electronic form, unless there is a special reason to the contrary. Similar access to information in any other official document shall be at the discretion of the authority, unless otherwise provided in an Act. ... Access may be granted to a personal data filing system controlled by an authority in the form of a copy or a printout, or an electronic-format copy of the contents of the system, unless specifically otherwise provided in an Act, if the person requesting access has the right to record and use such data according to the legislation on the protection of personal data. However, access to personal data for purposes of direct marketing, polls or market research shall not be granted unless specifically provided otherwise or unless the data subject has consented to the same.”
47. Section 21(1) of the Act provides the following:
“When requested to do so, an authority may compile and deliver a set of data formed from signs contained in one or more computerised information management systems and maintained for various purposes, if such delivery is not contrary to the provisions on document secrecy and the protection of personal data owing to the search criteria used, the volume or quality of the data or the intended use of the set of data.”
48. In the travaux préparatoires relating to the Act (Government Bill to Parliament HE 30/1998 vp., p. 48), it is expressly stated that access and dissemination are subject to separate legal regimes, although it is clear that the two are linked in that access to official documents facilitates and supports the activity and the function of the media in society. The fact that a document is in the public domain, in the sense that it is publicly accessible, does not automatically mean that it would be lawful to publish information contained in such a document where such information relates to a person’s private life (see Government Bill to Parliament HE 184/1999 vp., p. 32). Thus, for example, public access to court records does not in itself make it lawful for a person accessing such information to publish or disseminate it further, if such publication or dissemination would interfere with the privacy rights of the persons concerned (see Government Bill to Parliament HE 13/2006 vp., p. 15). E. Instructions issued by the Tax Administration
49. According to instructions issued by the Tax Administration (verohallinto, skatteförvaltningen), anyone can view information on natural persons’ taxable income and assets at local tax offices. Prior to 2010 this information was in paper format but it is now accessible digitally on terminals made available for those who request it. Access to this information in digital format was, at the time of the relevant facts, restricted to journalists. The information is made available to the public for viewing, making notes and taking photos only. Printing or copying the information on memory sticks or other media, or copying it digitally and sending it by e-mail is technically blocked and not possible. Extracts from the lists are available for a fee of 10 euros each, and data may also be delivered by telephone. The information is not made available on the Internet. 50. Previously, the lists of natural persons were compiled for each municipality separately but now they are compiled on a regional basis. As a result, information on a taxpayer’s municipality no longer features in the publicly accessible data. 51. Since 2000 the National Board of Taxation can disclose, for a fee, data in digital format for journalistic purposes. Any person requesting data in digital format for journalistic purposes must specify the purpose for which the data is to be used. Such persons must declare that “the information is requested for journalistic purposes” and that “the information will not be published as such in the form of a list”, by ticking a box next to the text of the declaration. The order form has contained these boxes since 2001. 52. Since 2013 ordering such data has been free of charge but, at the same time, the tax authorities introduced additional retrieval conditions explicitly stating that the ordering of the whole database was not possible. The amount of data accessible free of charge and in digital format is now limited to a maximum of 10,000 persons for the whole country or 5,000 persons for a specific region. If data are selected on the basis of income, the limit for earned income for the whole country or a specific region is at least 70,000 euros and the limit for capital income is 50,000 euros. The order is effected by filling in a digital form available at the Tax Administration’s website (www.vero.fi). F. Self-regulation by journalists and publishers
53. Guidelines for Journalists (Journalistin ohjeet, Journalistreglerna) have been established for the purposes of self-regulation. 54. The 1992 Guidelines were in force at the material time and provided the following (point 29):
“The principles concerning the right to privacy also apply when publishing information from public documents or other public sources. The public availability of information does not always necessarily imply that it can be freely published.”
The same principles are reiterated in the 2005, 2011 and the current 2014 version of the Guidelines (point 30). III. RELEVANT EUROPEAN UNION, INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE LAW MATERIAL
A. European Union law
1. Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
55. Article 8, paragraphs 1 and 2, of the Charter provides:
“Protection of personal data
1. Everyone has the right to the protection of personal data concerning him or her. 2. Such data must be processed fairly for specified purposes and on the basis of the consent of the person concerned or some other legitimate basis laid down by law. Everyone has the right of access to data which have been collected concerning him or her, and the right to have them rectified.”
56. Article 11 of the Charter reads as follows:
“Freedom of expression and information
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. 2. The freedom and pluralism of the media shall be respected.”
57. Article 52, paragraph 3, of the Charter provides that, in so far as the Charter contains rights which correspond to rights guaranteed by the Convention, the meaning and scope of those rights shall be the same as those laid down by the Convention. This provision of the Charter does not prevent EU law from providing more extensive protection. 58. According to the explanations relating to the Charter, Article 8 is based, inter alia, on Article 8 of the Convention and on the Council of Europe Convention of 28 January 1981 for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (hereafter the “Data Protection Convention”), which has been ratified by all EU Member States. Similarly, Article 11 of the Charter is said to correspond to Article 10 of the Convention. 2. Data Protection Directive
59. According to Article 1(1) of the Directive, its objective is to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons, and, in particular, their right to privacy with respect to the processing of personal data. In accordance with recital 11 of the Directive, the principles of the protection of the rights and freedoms of individuals, notably the right to privacy, which are contained in the Directive, give substance to and amplify those contained in the aforementioned Data Protection Convention. 60. Personal data are defined in Article 2 (a) as any information relating to an identified or identifiable person. The processing of personal data is defined as “any operation or set of operations which is performed upon personal data, whether or not by automatic means, such as collection, recording, organisation, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, blocking, erasure or destruction” (see Article 2(b)). A “controller” for the purposes of the Directive is a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or any other body which alone or jointly with others determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data (see Article 2(d)), whereas a “processor” is a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or any other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller (see Article 2(e)). 61. According to Article 3(1), the Directive applies to the processing of personal data wholly or partly by automatic means, and to the processing otherwise than by automatic means of personal data which form part of a filing system or are intended to form part of a filing system. 62. It is for the member States, within the limits of Chapter II of the Directive, to determine more precisely the conditions under which the processing of personal data is lawful (see Article 5). In this regard, the Directive provides, inter alia, that the data subject must have unambiguously given his consent or that the processing must be necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or that the processing must be necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller. Derogations from these provisions are provided in well-defined circumstances (see Article 7). 63. Article 9 of the Directive, entitled ‘Processing of personal data and freedom of expression’, provides:
“Member States shall provide for exemptions or derogations from the provisions of this Chapter [II], Chapter IV and Chapter VI for the processing of personal data carried out solely for journalistic purposes or the purpose of artistic or literary expression only if they are necessary to reconcile the right to privacy with the rules governing freedom of expression.”
64. In that connection, recital 37 of the Directive is worded as follows:
“Whereas the processing of personal data for purposes of journalism or for purposes of literary or artistic expression, in particular in the audio-visual field, should qualify for exemption from the requirements of certain provisions of this Directive in so far as this is necessary to reconcile the fundamental rights of individuals with freedom of [expression] and notably the right to receive and impart information, as guaranteed in particular in Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms; whereas member States should therefore lay down exemptions and derogations necessary for the purpose of balance between fundamental rights as regards general measures on the legitimacy of data processing, measures on the transfer of data to third countries and the power of the supervisory authority; whereas this should not, however, lead member States to lay down exemptions from the measures to ensure security of processing; whereas at least the supervisory authority responsible for this sector should also be provided with certain ex-post powers, e.g. to publish a regular report or to refer matters to the judicial authorities.”
65. Pursuant to Article 28(1) and (3) of the Directive, each member State shall provide that one or more public authorities are responsible for monitoring the application within its territory of the provisions adopted by the member States pursuant to the Directive. Each authority so established shall be endowed with the power to engage in legal proceedings where the national provisions adopted pursuant to the Directive have been violated or to bring these violations to the attention of judicial authorities. Decisions by the supervisory authority which give rise to complaints may be appealed against through the Courts. 66. Articles 22 and 23 of the Data Protection Directive provide, respectively, for the right to a judicial remedy for persons whose rights under national law on processing have been breached and the right to compensation for any person who has suffered damage as a result of an unlawful processing operation or act incompatible with national provisions adopted pursuant to the Directive. 3. Regulation (EU) 2016/679
67. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (OJ 2016 L 119/1) entered into force on 24 May 2016. It will repeal Directive 95/46/EC as of 25 May 2018 (see Article 99). 68. Recitals 4, 6, 9 and 153 of the new Regulation provide as follows:
“- The processing of personal data should be designed to serve mankind. The right to the protection of personal data is not an absolute right; it must be considered in relation to its function in society and be balanced against other fundamental rights, in accordance with the principle of proportionality. ... (recital 4);
...
- Rapid technological developments and globalisation have brought new challenges for the protection of personal data. The scale of the collection and sharing of personal data has increased significantly. Technology allows both private companies and public authorities to make use of personal data on an unprecedented scale in order to pursue their activities (recital 6);
...
- The objectives and principles of Directive 95/46/EC remain sound, but it has not prevented fragmentation in the implementation of data protection across the Union, legal uncertainty or a widespread public perception that there are significant risks to the protection of natural persons, in particular with regard to online activity... (recital 9);
...
- Member States law should reconcile the rules governing freedom of expression and information, including journalistic, academic, artistic and or literary expression with the right to the protection of personal data pursuant to this Regulation. The processing of personal data solely for journalistic purposes... should be subject to derogations or exemptions from certain provisions of this Regulation if necessary to reconcile the right to the protection of personal data with the right to freedom of expression and information, as enshrined in Article 11 of the Charter... In order to take account of the importance of the right to freedom of expression in every democratic society, it is necessary to interpret notions relating to that freedom, such as journalism, broadly (recital 153).”
69. Article 85 of the Regulation, which will replace the journalistic purposes derogation in Article 9 of the Directive, provides as follows:
“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.”
4. CJEU case-law on data protection and freedom of expression
70. The CJEU has repeatedly held that the provisions of the Data Protection Directive, inasmuch as they govern the processing of personal data liable to infringe fundamental freedoms, in particular the right to respect for private life, must necessarily be interpreted in the light of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Convention and the Charter (see variously Österreichischer Rundfunk and Others, C‑465/00, C‑138/01 and C‑139/01, EU:C:2003:294, judgment of 20 May 2003, paragraph 68; Google Spain and Google, C‑131/12, EU:C:2014:317, judgment of 13 May 2014, paragraph 68; and Ryneš, C‑212/13, EU:C:2014:2428, judgment of 11 December 2014, paragraph 29). 71. Given the relevance of Directive 95/46 to the balancing of the fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of expression at issue before the Finnish competent authorities and domestic courts in the instant case, the data protection case-law of the CJEU is set out in some detail. 72. At issue in Österreichischer Rundfunk, cited above, was national legislation which required a State control body, the Court of Audit, to collect and communicate, for purposes of publication, data on the income of persons employed by the bodies subject to its control, where that income exceeds a certain threshold. The purpose of the collection and publication of the information was to exert pressure on public bodies to keep salaries within reasonable limits. The CJEU held that, while the mere recording by an employer of data by name relating to the remuneration paid to his employees cannot as such constitute an interference with private life, the communication of that data to third parties, in the present case a public authority, infringes the right of the persons concerned to respect for private life, whatever the subsequent use of the information thus communicated, and constitutes an interference within the meaning of Article 8 of the Convention. Citing Amann v. Switzerland [GC], no. 27798/95, § 70, ECHR 2000‑II, it also held that to establish the existence of such an interference, it did not matter whether the information communicated was of a sensitive character or whether the persons concerned had been inconvenienced in any way (paragraphs 74-75). Finally, the CJEU held that the interference resulting from the application of the Austrian legislation may be justified under Article 8(2) of the Convention only in so far as the wide disclosure not merely of the amounts of the annual income above a certain threshold of persons employed by the bodies subject to control by the Court of Audit but also of the names of the recipients of that income was both necessary for and appropriate to the aim of keeping salaries within reasonable limits, that being a matter for the national courts to examine (paragraph 90). It emphasised, as regards the proportionality of the interference and the seriousness of the latter, that it was not impossible that the persons affected might suffer harm as a result of the negative effects of the publicity attached to their income from employment (paragraph 89). 73. In Lindqvist (judgment of 6 November 2003, C-101/01, EU:C:2003:596) the CJEU held that the act of referring, on an Internet page, to various persons and identifying them by name or by other means, for instance by giving their telephone number or information regarding their working conditions and hobbies, constituted the processing of personal data wholly or partly by automatic means within the meaning of Article 3(1) of the Data Protection Directive. Noting that the directive seeks to ensure not only the free flow of such data between Member States but also the safeguarding of the fundamental rights of individuals and that those objectives may be inconsistent with one another, the CJEU held that the mechanisms allowing those different rights and interests to be balanced are contained, first, in the Directive itself, and, second, result from the adoption, by the Member States, of national provisions implementing that directive and their application by the national authorities (paragraphs 79-82). The provisions of the Directive do not, in themselves, bring about a restriction which conflicts with the general principles of freedom of expression or other freedoms and rights which are applicable within the EU and are enshrined inter alia in Article 10 of the Convention. It is, according to the CJEU, for the national authorities and courts responsible for applying the national legislation implementing the Directive to ensure a fair balance between the rights and interests in question, including the fundamental rights protected by the EU legal order (paragraphs 83-90). 74. In Volker und Markus Schecke GbR (judgment of 9 November 2010, C-92/09 and C-93/09, EU:C:2010:662), the CJEU held that the obligation imposed by EU regulations to publish on a website data relating to the beneficiaries of aid from EU agricultural and rural development funds, including their names and the income received, constituted an unjustified interference with the fundamental right to the protection of personal data. Referring to Amann, cited above, and Rotaru v. Romania [GC], no. 28341/95, ECHR 2000‑V, it pointed out that the professional nature of the activities to which the data referred did not imply the absence of a right to privacy. The fact that the beneficiaries of aid had been informed that the data might be made public was not sufficient to establish that they had given their consent to its publication. As regards the proportionality of the interference with privacy rights, the CJEU held that it did not appear that the EU institutions had properly balanced the public interest objective in the transparent use of public funds against the rights which natural persons are recognised as having under Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter. Regard being had to the fact that derogations and limitations in relation to the protection of personal data must apply only in so far as is strictly necessary, and that it was possible to envisage measures which would have affected less adversely that fundamental right of natural persons and which would still have contributed effectively to the objectives of the European Union rules in question, the CJEU held that the EU regulations in question exceeded the limits which compliance with the principle of proportionality imposes and struck them down. 75. In Google Spain, cited above, the CJEU held that the operations carried out by the operator of an internet search engine must be classified as ‘processing’ within the meaning of the Data Protection Directive regardless of the fact that the data have already been published on the internet and are not altered by the search engine. Inasmuch as the activity of a search engine is liable to affect significantly fundamental rights to privacy and to the protection of personal data, the operator of the search engine must ensure that the activity meets the requirements of the Directive in order that the guarantees laid down by the Directive may have full effect and that effective and complete protection of data subjects, in particular of their right to privacy, may actually be achieved. As regards the derogation in Article 9 of the Directive, while the CJEU did not exclude that processing by the publisher of a web page may, in some circumstances, be carried out ‘solely for journalistic purposes’ and thus benefit from that derogation, the same did not appear to be the case as regards processing carried out by the operator of a search engine. The CJEU also held that the processing of personal data may be incompatible with the Directive not only because the data are inaccurate but, in particular, also because “they are inadequate, irrelevant or excessive in relation to the purposes of the processing, that they are not kept up to date, or that they are kept for longer than is necessary unless they are required to be kept for historical, statistical or scientific purposes” (paragraph 92). 76. In Schrems (judgment of 6 October 2015 (Grand Chamber), C‑362/14, EU:C:2015:650, paragraphs 41-42), the CJEU held that national supervisory authorities must, in particular, ensure a fair balance between, on the one hand, observance of the fundamental right to privacy and, on the other hand, the interests requiring free movement of personal data. According to the CJEU, legislation not providing for any possibility for an individual to pursue legal remedies in order to have access to personal data relating to him, or to obtain the rectification or erasure of such data, does not respect the essence of the fundamental right to effective judicial protection, as enshrined in Article 47 of the Charter (paragraph 95). 77. More recently, in Tele2 Sverige (judgment of 21 December 2016, C‑203/15, EU:C:2016:970), where it had to interpret an EU regulation concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector, whose provisions particularise and complement Directive 95/46 (paragraph 82), the CJEU held, at paragraph 93:
“Accordingly, the importance both of the right to privacy, guaranteed in Article 7 of the Charter, and of the right to protection of personal data, guaranteed in Article 8 of the Charter, as derived from the Court’s case-law [...], must be taken into consideration in interpreting Article 15(1) of Directive 2002/58. The same is true of the right to freedom of expression in the light of the particular importance accorded to that freedom in any democratic society. That fundamental right, guaranteed in Article 11 of the Charter, constitutes one of the essential foundations of a pluralist, democratic society, and is one of the values on which, under Article 2 TEU, the Union is founded [...].”
78. In Connolly v. Commission (judgment of 6 March 2001, C-274/99 P, EU:C:2001:127), a case involving the right to freedom of expression of an EU official and the limitations placed thereon, the CJEU held, at paragraphs 37-42:
“[F]undamental rights form an integral part of the general principles of law, whose observance the Court ensures. For that purpose, the Court draws inspiration from the constitutional traditions common to the Member States and from the guidelines supplied by international treaties for the protection of human rights on which the Member States have collaborated or to which they are signatories. The ECHR has special significance in that respect [...]. As the Court of Human Rights has held, ‘Freedom of expression constitutes one of the essential foundations of [a democratic society], one of the basic conditions for its progress and for the development of every man. Subject to paragraph 2 of Article 10 [of the ECHR], it is applicable not only to ”information” or ”ideas” that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb; such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no ”democratic society (Eur. Court H. R. Handyside v United Kingdom judgment of 7 December 1976, Series A no. 24, § 49; Müller and Others judgment of 24 May 1988, Series A no. 133, § 33; and Vogt v. Germany judgment of 26 September 1995, Series A no. 323, § 52).
[...]
Those limitations [set out in Article 10(2) of the Convention] must, however, be interpreted restrictively. According to the Court of Human Rights, the adjective ‘necessary’ involves, for the purposes of Article 10(2), a ‘pressing social need’ and, although ‘[t]he contracting States have a certain margin of appreciation in assessing whether such a need exists, the interference must be ‘proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued and ‘the reasons adduced by the national authorities to justify it must be ‘relevant and sufficient (see, in particular, Vogt v. Germany, § 52; and Wille v. Liechtenstein judgment of 28 October 1999, no. 28396/95, § 61 to § 63). Furthermore, any prior restriction requires particular consideration (see Wingrove v. United Kingdom judgment of 25 November 1996, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1996-V, p. 1957, § 58 and § 60). Furthermore, the restrictions must be prescribed by legislative provisions which are worded with sufficient precision to enable interested parties to regulate their conduct, taking, if need be, appropriate advice (Eur. Court H. R. Sunday Times v. United Kingdom judgment of 26 April 1979, Series A no. 30, § 49).”
79. In Philip Morris (judgment of 4 May 2016, C-547/14, EU:C:2016:325, paragraph 147), the CJEU confirmed the correlation between Article 10 of the Convention and Article 11 of the Charter:
“Article 11 of the Charter affirms the freedom of expression and information. That freedom is also protected under Article 10 [ECHR], which applies, in particular, as is clear from the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, to the dissemination by a business of commercial information, including in the form of advertising. Given that the freedom of expression and information laid down in Article 11 of the Charter has — as is clear from Article 52(3) thereof and the Explanations Relating to the Charter as regards Article 11 — the same meaning and scope as the freedom guaranteed by the Convention, it must be held that that freedom covers the use by a business, on the packaging and labelling of tobacco products, of indications such as those covered by Article 13(1) of Directive 2014/40.”
B. Relevant international instruments and comparative law material
1. Council of Europe documents
80. Within the framework of the Council of Europe, the Data Protection Convention formulates a number of core principles for the collection and processing of personal data. The purpose of the Convention is, according to Article 1, to secure respect for every individual’s rights and fundamental freedoms, and in particular his right to privacy, with regard to the automatic processing of personal data relating to him. The Convention includes the following basic principles:
[...]
 
“Article 5 – Quality of data
Personal data undergoing automatic processing shall be:
a)  obtained and processed fairly and lawfully;
b)  stored for specified and legitimate purposes and not used in a way incompatible with those purposes;
c)  adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purposes for which they are stored;
d)  accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date;
e)  preserved in a form which permits identification of the data subjects for no longer than is required for the purpose for which those data are stored. Article 7 – Data security
Appropriate security measures shall be taken for the protection of personal data stored in automated data files against accidental or unauthorised destruction or accidental loss as well as against unauthorised access, alteration or dissemination. Article 8 – Additional safeguards for the data subject
Any person shall be enabled:
a)  to establish the existence of an automated personal data file, its main purposes, as well as the identity and habitual residence or principal place of business of the controller of the file;
b)  to obtain at reasonable intervals and without excessive delay or expense confirmation of whether personal data relating to him are stored in the automated data file as well as communication to him of such data in an intelligible form;
c)  to obtain, as the case may be, rectification or erasure of such data if these have been processed contrary to the provisions of domestic law giving effect to the basic principles set out in Articles 5 and 6 of this Convention;
d)  to have a remedy if a request for confirmation or, as the case may be, communication, rectification or erasure as referred to in paragraphs b and c of this Article is not complied with. Article 9 – Exceptions and restrictions
No exception to the provisions of Articles 5, 6 and 8 of this Convention shall be allowed except within the limits defined in this Article. Derogation from the provisions of Articles 5, 6 and 8 of this Convention shall be allowed when such derogation is provided for by the law of the Party and constitutes a necessary measure in a democratic society in the interests of:
a)  protecting State security, public safety, the monetary interests of the State or the suppression of criminal offences;
b)  protecting the data subject or the rights and freedoms of others. Restrictions on the exercise of the rights specified in Article 8, paragraphs b, c and d, may be provided by law with respect to automated personal data files used for statistics or for scientific research purposes when there is obviously no risk of an infringement of the privacy of the data subjects.”
The Data Protection Convention is currently being updated. 2. Comparative law material
81. From the information available to the Court, it would appear that, apart from Finland, only Iceland, Italy, France, Monaco, Sweden and Switzerland provide for some form of public accessibility of individual taxation information. 82. In contrast, of the 40 Council of Europe States surveyed, 34 provide, in principle, for the secrecy of personal taxation information. Such data can only be disclosed either with the consent of the person concerned or where disclosure is provided for by law. Exceptions to the secrecy rule exist also for certain types of taxation data (tax debts and exemptions, public registers for business activity) and for data concerning the tax affairs of public officials. THE LAW
I. THE GOVERNMENT’S PRELIMINARY OBJECTIONS
83. The Government raised two preliminary objections relating to the applicant companies’ alleged failure to lodge their complaints within the six-month time-limit and to their lack of victim status. A. Six-month time-limit
84. Before the Grand Chamber, the Government reiterated the preliminary objection raised before the Chamber to the effect that the complaints under Articles 6 § 1 and 10 of the Convention had not been lodged within the six-month time-limit regarding the first set of proceedings as required by Article 35 § 1 of the Convention (see paragraphs 13-22 above). Since the subject-matter of the two sets of proceedings was not the same, the present case had in effect involved two separate sets: the first concerning the question whether the applicant companies had processed personal taxation data unlawfully and the second the issuance of orders regarding the processing of personal data. Consequently, in the view of the Government, as regards the first set of proceedings, the application should be declared inadmissible under Article 35 §§ 1 and 4 of the Convention. 85. The applicant companies argued that the initial aim of the Data Protection Ombudsman had been to obtain an order preventing the applicant companies from publishing Veropörssi. Since this was not accomplished until the second round, the proceedings could not be divided into two separate sets each one with independent and separable domestic remedies. Whereas the Supreme Administrative Court had referred the case back to the Data Protection Board in September 2009, it could instead have issued an order directly without such a referral. The applicant companies thus argued that their complaints under Articles 6 § 1 and 10 of the Convention had been lodged within the six-month time-limit. 86. As noted by the Chamber, the first round of proceedings ended on 23 September 2009 when the Supreme Administrative Court quashed the lower court decisions and referred the case back to the Data Protection Board. As the case had been referred back to the Data Protection Board, there was no final decision, but the proceedings continued into a second round. The domestic proceedings became final only on 18 June 2012 when the Supreme Administrative Court delivered its second and final decision in the case (see paragraph 28 above). 87. Like the Chamber, the Grand Chamber considers that, as there was only one final decision, there was only one set of proceedings for the purposes of the six-month time limit for the lodging of applications in Article 35 § 1, although the case was examined twice before the different levels of jurisdiction. 88. In the circumstances, the Government’s first preliminary objection must be dismissed and the complaints under Articles 6 § 1 and 10 of the Convention must be considered as having been introduced within the time-limit. B. Lack of victim status
89. In the course of the public hearing before the Grand Chamber, the Government raised, for the first time, an additional preliminary objection based on the fact that the first applicant company had been declared bankrupt on 15 March 2016, after the case had been referred to the Grand Chamber, with the result that it lacked victim status for the purposes of Article 34 of the Convention. 90. The Court observes that the Government’s objection is based on the premise that the first applicant company and its assets had, since that date, been managed by the bankruptcy estate and that this change in its legal status had deprived that company of its victim status. 91. It should be noted that it was only in September 2016 that the Government brought this matter to the Court’s attention. The applicant companies, for their part, informed the Court only a day before the hearing of the bankruptcy proceedings and of their representative’s capacity to represent them at the public hearing held on 14 September 2016. 92. The Court would point out that, according to Rule 55 of the Rules of Court, “[a]ny plea of inadmissibility must, in so far as its character and the circumstances permit, be raised by the respondent Contracting Party in its written or oral observations on the admissibility of the application ...”. However, the decision on the admissibility of the application was adopted on 21 July 2015, at which time the fact on which the Government’s objection relies had not yet occurred. Therefore, the Government were not in a position to comply with the time-limit established in Rule 55. 93. The Court sees no need to determine whether the Government are now estopped from making the above objection on account of their delay in raising it (see paragraphs 89-91 above) since it finds in any event that it concerns a matter which goes to the Court’s jurisdiction and which it is not prevented from examining of its own motion (see, for instance, R.P. and Others v. the United Kingdom, no. 38245/08, § 47, 9 October 2012; and Buzadji v. the Republic of Moldova [GC], no. 23755/07, § 70, ECHR 2016 (extracts)). 94. The administrator of the bankruptcy estate did not object to the company continuing to pursue their complaints before the Court, as indicated in a letter sent to the Court on the eve of the public hearing. Bearing in mind that the first applicant company still exists, pursuant to Finnish law, as a separate legal person, although governed by the bankruptcy administration, the Court considers that it can still claim to be a victim of the alleged violations of Articles 6 § 1 and 10 of the Convention. 95. Consequently, the Government’s second preliminary objection is also dismissed. II. ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 10 OF THE CONVENTION
96. The applicant companies complained that their right to freedom of expression protected by paragraph 1 of Article 10 of the Convention had been interfered with in a manner which was not justified under its second paragraph. The collection of taxation information was not illegal as such and the information collected and published was in the public domain. Individual privacy rights were not violated. 97. Article 10 of the Convention reads as follows:
“1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This Article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises. 2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.”
A. The Chamber judgment
98. The Chamber considered that there had been an interference with the applicant companies’ right to impart information, but that that interference had been “prescribed by law” and had pursued the legitimate aim of protecting the reputation or rights of others. As to the necessity of said interference in a democratic society, the Chamber noted that the taxation data in question were already a matter of public record in Finland and, as such, was a matter of public interest. This information had been received directly from the tax authorities and there was no evidence, according to the Chamber, or indeed any allegation, of factual errors, misrepresentation or bad faith on the part of the applicant companies. The only problematic issue for the national authorities and courts had been the manner and the extent to which the information could be published. 99. The Chamber noted that, after having received the preliminary ruling from the CJEU, the Supreme Administrative Court had found that the publication of the whole database containing personal data collected for journalistic purposes could not be regarded as a journalistic activity. It had considered that the public interest did not require publication of personal data to the extent seen in the present case. The same applied also to the SMS service. The Chamber observed that, in its analysis, the Supreme Administrative Court had attached importance both to the applicant companies’ right to freedom of expression and to the right to respect for the private life of those tax payers whose taxation information had been published. It had balanced these interests in its reasoning, interpreting the applicant companies’ freedom of expression strictly, in line with the CJEU ruling on the need for a strict interpretation of the journalistic purposes derogation, in order to protect the right to privacy. The Chamber found this reasoning acceptable. According to the Chamber, the Court would, under such circumstances, require strong reasons to substitute its own view for that of the domestic courts. 100. As regards the sanctions imposed by the domestic authorities, the Chamber noted that the applicant companies had not been prohibited generally from publishing the information in question but only to a certain extent. Their decision to shut down the business was thus not a direct consequence of the actions taken by the domestic courts and authorities but an economic decision made by the applicant companies themselves. B. The parties’ submissions to the Grand Chamber
1. The applicant companies
101. The applicant companies maintained that the domestic decisions had prevented them from imparting information and had as a consequence impeded them “entirely” from carrying out their publishing activities. The said interference had taken the form of a prior ban. On 1 November every year, when the tax records of the previous year became public, numerous newspapers and other media published personal tax data in paper and electronic formats. This was no different from what the applicant companies had engaged in, apart from the quantity of the published data. The majority of the persons whose data were accessible in this way were not known to the public and were of varying backgrounds and professions. No particular judicial attention had ever been paid to the identity of the persons whose names and amounts of taxable income had been published. Nor had the activities of other media ever been subject to the Data Protection Ombudsman’s scrutiny. 102. The applicant companies argued that this interference with their right to freedom of expression had not been “prescribed by law”. The publishing of taxation data had, in particular, been accepted by the Finnish legislator. The preparatory work relating to the Act on the Public Disclosure and Confidentiality of Tax Information noted that such publishing had taken place for years and also served certain societal purposes. A thorough discussion had taken place during the preparation of the said Act, assessing the pros and cons of publishing taxation data, and the legislator had finally decided to maintain public access to such data. The Personal Data Act was not intended to restrict publishing activities. The relevant preparatory work stated that the legal status of the data in question was to remain unchanged. The journalistic purposes derogation was to apply to databases that were designed to support publishing so as to prevent even indirect prior restrictions on freedom of expression. Possible violations of privacy were to be examined and dealt with ex post facto. On this basis the applicant companies argued that the interference had not been “prescribed by law” within the meaning of Article 10 § 2 of the Convention. 103. The applicant companies also claimed that the interference had not been “necessary in a democratic society”. There had never been any issue as regards the accuracy of the information, only its quantity. The balancing criteria applied by the Court functioned best where the privacy of one or two persons was concerned. In such situations the data relating to a particular individual took prominence. When hundreds of thousands of names were published, all in the same manner, the information concerning a specific person “blended in”. The publication of such data could hardly violate anyone’s privacy. For such situations, a different type of balancing criteria ought to be applied in order to better take into account the nature of the mass data published, namely a criterion for protecting the privacy of a large population. Moreover, when other media had published taxation data on, for example, 150,000 individuals, it had never been requested that this information be viewed in the light of the Court’s balancing criteria. It was only when the applicant companies had published 1.2 million names that such criteria became applicable. 104. The issue of public interest had been examined when the Act on the Public Disclosure and Confidentiality of Tax Information was enacted. According to the applicant companies, public access to tax data enabled the public to observe the results of tax policies and how differences in income and wealth developed, for example, between different regions, occupations and sexes. It also enabled supervision by the Finnish tax administration as people reported their suspicions of tax evasion directly to the tax administration. In 2015 alone, the tax administration had received 15,000 such reports. The applicant companies thus argued that a balance between the public and publishable tax records, on the one hand, and the protection of privacy, on the other hand, had already been struck by the Finnish legislator. Therefore, no margin of appreciation, or at least a very narrow one, was left to the domestic authorities. There was thus no need for any re-balancing. Contrary to Fressoz and Roire v. France [GC], no. 29183/95, ECHR 1999-I, the taxation information in the present case had been obtained lawfully by the applicant companies from public tax records, in the same manner as any other member of the public. The effect on a person’s privacy could not in any significant way be different depending on whether the information had been received from the applicant companies, other media or through a phone-in service operated by the tax administration itself. Since the information had been so readily available, its publication could not violate anyone’s privacy. 105. Referring to the definition of journalistic activities set out in the draft EU General Data Protection Regulation, the applicant companies argued that their publishing activities should be considered as journalism. The reasoning of the Supreme Administrative Court was in contradiction with this definition, which fact was bound to endanger the very idea of freedom of expression. Given the terms of the Supreme Administrative Court’s judgment, one had to ask how much information needed to be published to transgress the limit between publishable and non-publishable information. The quantity and the manner in which taxation information could be lawfully published had, according to the applicant companies, never been defined. The national court had failed to take into account the balancing criteria in the Court’s case-law, and had only had regard to the public interest criterion. There should in any event be no upper limit on the quantity of information publishable. 2. The Government
106. The Government agreed, in essence, with the Chamber’s finding of no violation, but contended that there had been no interference with the applicant companies’ right to impart information. The applicant companies could still collect and publish public taxation data in so far as they complied with the requirements of data protection legislation. 107. In the event that the Court were to find that an interference had occurred, the Government agreed with the Chamber’s finding that the interference was prescribed by law and pursued the legitimate aim of protecting the reputation or rights of others. As to the further question whether any interference had been necessary in a democratic society, the Government shared the Chamber’s view that the general subject-matter, namely taxation data relating to natural persons’ taxable income, was a matter of public interest. Taxation data were publicly available in Finland but had to be accessed and used in conformity with the Personal Data Act and the Act on the Openness of Government Activities. Public access to such information did not imply that that information could always be published. Respect for personal data and privacy under Article 8 of the Convention required the disclosure of such information to be subject to certain controls. 108. The Government emphasised that the applicant companies had requested the data in question from the National Board of Taxation in 2000 and 2001. On the basis of an opinion received by the Board from the Data Protection Ombudsman, the Board had requested the applicant companies to provide further information regarding their request, and indicated that the data could not be disclosed if the publishing methods of Veropörssi continued unchanged. The applicant companies had then cancelled their request while explaining that they would provide information to the Data Protection Ombudsman and the National Board of Taxation the following year, which they never did. Instead, they employed people to collect taxation data manually at the local tax offices. 109. The Government pointed out that, according to the Guidelines for Journalists which were in force at the material time, the right to privacy also applied when publishing public documents or other information originating from public sources. The Guidelines made clear that the public availability of information did not necessarily imply that it could be freely published. 110. The Government noted that, as the domestic courts had made clear, the manner and extent of the publication were of importance. The data published in Veropörssi had encompassed data relating to 1.2 million persons, almost one third of all taxpayers in Finland. Other Finnish media published taxation data concerning 50,000 to 100,000 individuals annually, which was considerably less than the applicant companies. The latter published, without any analysis, data on persons with low or medium income who were not public figures and held no important positions in society. Their publishing activities could not therefore be viewed as data journalism aimed at drawing conclusions from such data and drawing attention to issues of public interest for public debate. Such publishing did not contribute to public debate in a manner that outweighed the public interest in protecting the processing of personal data to the described extent; it mainly satisfied readers’ curiosity. The applicant companies had not been prevented from publishing taxation data as such or participating in any public debate on an issue of general importance. 111. Should the public interest in ensuring the transparency of the taxation data require the possibility of their disclosure by, for instance, publishing the data by the media, the Government took the view that that aim could have been accomplished without processing personal data to the extent prohibited by the Personal Data Act and the Data Protection Directive. The present case differed from Fressoz and Roire v. France, cited above, in which the publishing of data concerned a single person having a key role in a public debate on a socially important issue. Contrary to the applicant companies’ allegations, the present case was not abstract and hypothetical. Private persons had been affected by their activities: between 2000 and 2010 the Data Protection Ombudsman had received a number of complaints requesting his intervention. There was thus a pressing social need to protect private life under Article 8 of the Convention. 112. Concerning the interpretation of the Data Protection Directive, the CJEU had noted in its preliminary ruling in the present case that it was necessary to interpret the notion of journalism broadly and that derogations and limitations in relation to data protection had to apply only insofar as was strictly necessary. The applicant companies were never prevented from publishing taxation information in general. They could have, had they so wished, adjusted their activities so as to comply with the Personal Data Act. 113. Referring to the margin of appreciation, the Government emphasised, as did the Chamber, that the Court would need strong reasons to substitute its own view for that of the domestic courts. The domestic courts had been acting within the margin of appreciation afforded to them and had struck a fair balance between the competing interests at stake. The interference complained of was “necessary in a democratic society” and there had been no violation of Article 10 of the Convention. C. Third-party observations
1. The European Information Society Institute
114. The European Information Society Institute noted that data journalism involved the making of already existing information more useful to the public. Processing and analysing of available data on a particular topic was also an important journalistic activity in and of itself. To remove the protection of Article 10 when journalists published databases would jeopardise the protection that ought to be afforded to a wide range of activities in which journalists engaged to impart information to the public. If the use of new technologies could not find protection under Article 10, the right to impart information as well as the right to receive it would be seriously impaired. 115. The traditional criteria for defining the limits on the quantity of information that could be published and processed by private actors were not well suited to balancing the tensions created by data journalism. The balancing factors previously used by the Court were not useful in cases like the present one. When data journalists made available information that was in the public interest, their actions should be supported in a democratic society – not silenced. The European Information Society Institute therefore suggested that the Court might revisit its method of applying the existing case-law in cases where journalists processed information in order to impart information to the public. It should extend the Article 10 protection to innovative forms of journalism and recognise that the standard for determining how Article 10 protected journalists engaged in the processing of data could have important consequences. 2. NORDPLUS Law and Media Network
116. NORDPLUS Law and Media Network noted that it was important for the Court to develop principles related to freedom of expression in the light of present day conditions and to consider how the established principles applied in the digital media context. Many UN, EU and OECD guidelines referred to media neutrality and technological neutrality when addressing the digital media environment. The present case provided a key opportunity to review the existing definition of “journalist”. The EU guidelines pointed out that there was a need to go beyond the notion of traditional journalists and widen its scope for the benefit of those whose freedom of expression should be protected. An extended scope could also have an impact on the balancing test and its possible reassessment. The Court should further elaborate on whether the concept of “chilling effect” should be viewed differently in the new media environment. 117. Access to information was one of the cornerstones of participation in democratic debate and a precondition for the media in the performance of their role of public watchdog. Many countries had different traditions when it came to making information public. In Finland, transparency was a highly important societal value. NORDPLUS Law and Media Network concluded that the Court’s case-law needed further clarification in order to reduce the uncertainty that existed in the field of freedom of expression and the right to privacy in the digital media environment. 3. ARTICLE 19, the Access to Information Programme and Társaság a Szabadságjogokért
118. ARTICLE 19, the Access to Information Programme and Társaság a Szabadságjogokért noted that the CJEU had in 2008 adopted a wide definition of journalism in its case Satakunnan Markkinapörssi. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe had also defined a journalist broadly as “any natural or legal person who [was] regularly or professionally engaged in the collection and dissemination of information to the public via any means of mass communication”. In Ireland, the High Court had extended the journalistic privilege to bloggers, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression had noted in his 2015 report that persons other than professional journalists carried out a “vital public watchdog role”. The Court should therefore not set the standard of protection under Article 10 any lower than mentioned above. 119. Disclosure of public personal data could contribute to the good of society by creating transparency and accountability around the actions of those who wielded power within society or, conversely, were engaged in unlawful conduct. Publication of such information did not merely satisfy the curiosity of readers but contributed substantially to the pursuit of public interest journalism. These arguments became even stronger if the personal data had previously been published by the State or had otherwise been deemed public under national legislation. The fact that such information was made public implied that there was a public interest regarding access to such information. The public interest in publishing such information outweighed privacy considerations and, once publication had taken place, the information could no longer be regarded as inherently private. D. The Court’s assessment
1. Preliminary remarks on the scope and context of the Court’s assessment
120.

Article of the Convention at issue: Article 10
Outcome: no_violation