Journalism and data published in internet: the concept of «public accesible source» and other restrictions of Personal Data Protection Law

Abstract

This article analyzes some serious restrictions that the Spanish legislation on personal data protection imposes to publication and use of personal data in Internet. According to Law 15/1999 of Personal Data Protection (LOPD), a website or a blog are not considered as a «public accessible source» and the present jurisprudence does not even consider them as a mass media. Internet, a universal mass media, becomes reduced to a universe of mere automated files regulated by the LOPD. Consistend with this, law can prevent and sanction the use of contained personal data in such files. The revision of resolutions and sanctioning judgments derived from infringements of LOPD in Internet demonstrates a very restrictive legal frame. This would be away from European regulations of data use «with exclusively journalistic aims» and limits information freedom seriously and puts the exercise of the media in Internet under a high legal insecurity