NCPDP organized a round table for students and civil society on the right of access to information and the right to personal data protection.

NCPDP organized a round table for students and civil society on the right of access to information and the right to personal data protection.

On 29 January 2020, the National Center for Personal Data Protection (NCPDP) continued the round of events dedicated to the European Data Protection Day. In this regard, the NCPDP organized, for the first time, in the premises of a cafe in Chisinau, a common event for students and civil society, on the topic “Conciliation of the right of access to information and the right of personal data protection in the Republic of Moldova. Challenges, difficulties and possible solutions”.

The NCPDP was represented by Mrs. Victoria Butușanu, main state inspector, Legal Department which moderated the discussions in which participated 5 students of third year from Law Faculty of Free International University of Moldova (ULIM) and 5 students of third year from the Faculty of Journalism of Moldova State University, representatives of NGOs such as: “Promo-Lex”, “Action for Justice”, “Center for Legal Resources”, “Association for the Protection of Privacy” and “Centre for Investigative Journalism”.

During the dialogue were addressed various topics that entail the exercise of balancing the right of access to information and the right to personal data protection, namely: depersonalization of court decisions, depersonalization of administrative acts issued by local public authorities, pragmatic impediments of journalists in the process of accessing information, the legal framework on access to information and the new draft law on access to information, etc.

During the discussions, it was expressed the need for all involved actors to identify a balance between the two rights, without prejudice to one or the other. In this respect, the exceptional character of the limitation of the right of access to information and the need for an exhaustive argumentation of the reasons that generated the limitation, with the omission of the legally obscure phrases, was emphasized.

For 2020, the NCPDP aims to organize more activities in this format for the civil society to ensure the development of a constructive and permanent dialogue with the stakeholders in order to identify the optimal solutions for the correct application of the legal norms in the field of personal data protection.