Personal Data Protection and Safeguarding Draft Act June 2019 individuals to work in a space unhindered by authorities, and to develop their own voice. As a practical matter, limits on privacy affect the ability of the media to operate. Journalists are not able to effectively pursue investigations and receive information from confidential and other sources.25 Data protection laws can support freedom of expression by placing limits on the unlawful collection of personal information for political purposes, such as bodies creating dossiers to put pressure on journalists and others. There are some divergences. The tension between freedom of expression and the right to privacy can be exacerbated as personal information can be collected and made available across borders on an unprecedented scale and at minimal cost for both companies and states. At the same time, the application of data protection laws and other measures to protect the right to privacy can have a disproportionate impact on the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression. Thus, as two equal human rights, it is essential that governments and courts balance the two in a fair manner without giving precedence to one over the other. International human rights law does not recognise a hierarchy of rights, in which one trumps the other. As the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993 states: All human rights are universal, indivisible, and interdependent and interrelated. The international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis. While the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural, and religious backgrounds must be borne in mind, it is the duty of States, regardless of their political, economic, and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.26 The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has stated: [A]ll human rights are equally important. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes it clear that human rights of all kinds—economic, political, civil, cultural, and social—are of equal validity and importance…. Human rights are also indivisible and interdependent. The principle of their indivisibility recognises that no human right is inherently inferior to any other.27 This approach of balancing rights has long been adopted by the European Court of Human Rights in cases involving privacy and freedom of expression: [W]hen verifying whether the authorities struck a fair balance between two protected values guaranteed by the Convention which may come into conflict with each other in this type of case, freedom of expression protected by Article 10 and the right to respect for private life enshrined in Article 8, the Court must balance the public interest in the publication of a photograph and the need to protect private life…. The balancing of individual interests, which may well be contradictory, is a difficult matter and Contracting States must have a broad margin of appreciation in this respect since the national authorities are in principle better placed than this Court to assess whether or not there is a “pressing social need” capable of justifying an interference with one of the rights guaranteed by the Convention.28 In a follow up case, the European Court of Human Rights clarified that when balancing the right to freedom of expression and the right to privacy, as a matter of principle, both rights deserved equal respect.29 The Court went on to identify a number of relevant factors in balancing these rights, including: ● ● the contribution to a debate of public interest; how well known the person concerned is and the subject of the report; See e.g. IFEX Alert, Thirty IFEX members call on governments to respect fundamental human rights of free expression and privacy of communications, 5 June 2009. http://www.ifex.org/international/2009/06/05/ja_gm/. 26 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, U.N. Doc A/CONF.157/23 (12 July 1993). 27 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Frequently Asked Questions On A Human Rights-Based Approach To Development Cooperation, 2006. 28 See e.g. Von Hannover v Germany, No 59320/00, 24 June 2004. 29 European Court of Human Rights, Von Hannover v. Germany No.2, [GC], Nos. 40660/08&60641/08, para. 106, 2012. 25 ARTICLE 19 – Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Rd, London EC1R 3GA – www.article19.org – +44 20 7324 2500 Page 11 of 58