Speaking about the number of court judgements removed from the internet, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici told The Malta Independent that the right to be forgotten must be respected especially given that we are living in an era where data protection – especially after the introduction of the GDPR – is a more important point on the everyday agenda.
Bonnici recently told Parliament that a total of 176 requests for court judgements to be removed from the public domain had been filed. Out of those, 112 judgements were made or are being made anonymous, meaning that the personal details of individuals are removed, he said in Parliament.
A total of 41 requests were rejected while one request was invalid, and another 22 requests are still being considered. In 2014 there was one request. In 2017 there were 21 requests. In 2018 there were 121 requests, and in 2019 there were 33 requests, the minister said.
This all being said, when there is a request for a judgement to be removed from online, it does not mean that the case is removed from the court system “in fact the legal professions will still have access to these judgements through Lecam”, Bonnici said.
Bonnici was answering to a parliamentary question posed by PN MP Karol Aquilina.
The Malta Independent asked the minister whether the removal of these judgements from the public domain were in breach of the right to information and how the process on whether to accept or reject requests such as these works.
Bonnici replied that the right to privacy is very important and the consequences of even being mentioned in a case can be disproportionate. He cited an example where a person had been a jury member for a case, but when he applied for a job his prospective employer had googled his name, found that he had been a jury member and did not give him the job as a result.
He noted that out of an estimate of 10,000 criminal cases put online every year, having 176 requests in the space of five years was “very very low”.
He said that the procedure followed guidelines published by the association for data commissioners which is comprised of data commissioners from across Europe, guidelines which were published long before the GDPR.
The GDPR itself explains the right to be forgotten, the importance of it, and the procedure to follow it, Bonnici said before adding that he was proud that Malta had started to understand the need for such measures and begin implementing them before the onset of GDPR.
The removal of court judgements from the internet was a source of controversy last year, after the Justice Minister had made controversially revealed that he had authorised the Court's Director General to remove online judgements when requested by individuals when he deems fit. The situation caused controversy, with many questioning such a decision, and further scrutinising the fact that it was at the discretion of the Director General of the courts. The Maltese IT Law Association (MITLA) had also hit out at the way the situation was handled.