The Courts of Malta issued new guidelines regarding the erasure of court judgements from the court's website.

The removal or alteration of any judgements will take place if the director-general of the court believes there are valid grounds to do so. The issue deals with the right to be forgotten.

Earlier this week, media organisations and NGOs wrote a letter to the Prime Minister expresing concern about the legal notice which grants the DG of the courts the ability to erase court judgements from the website, urging the PM to revoke the notice.

The Nationalist Party announced that it filed a motion in parliament to withdraw the legal notice. 

According to the guidelines, prior to the removel of judgements from the court's online databased by the Court Services Agency CEO, applicants must explain why they are requesting the removal or censorship of a judgement.

The courts' Director General will consider whether the judgement needs to remain on the website for reasons of public interest, to exercise the right to information or freedom of expression, or for research, historical or scientific purposes.

The possibility of considering such requests is only possible once three years have passed from the time when the court passed its final judgement.

The CEO must also consider whether the removal, in whole or in part, or the anonymisation of a judgement from the online database will have a negative impact on other individuals. The decision must also be based on the EU's General Data Protection Regulation and EU courts' decision on the processing of personal data.

The guidelines outline a set of requirements which must be met before approving the removal or the anonymisation of a judgement. Judgements should only be removed once three years have elapsed from the date of the judgement or if the offender has been sentenced to a fine, the fine must be paid.

If an appeal has been lodged, the appeal must first be decided and the three years would begin from the decision by the court of appeal.

In addition, if the judgement is the subject of other proceedings, those proceedings must first be terminated. In the event of a convinction for a suspended prison sentence, the operative period must have lapsed, and finally, if the person was found not guilty, the sentence shall, except on grounds of public interest, be revoked shortly after the request is made.

The guidelines also specify that the decision must be communicated in writing to the person making the request within 30 days of request. The applicant can appeal the decision.