12/10/2019 CURIA - Documents whether or not, in the course of those legal proceedings, the offence for which the individual was prosecuted was shown to have been committed. 73 Consequently, by including in the list of results displayed following a search carried out on the basis of the data subject’s name links to web pages on which such data are published, the operator of a search engine carries out a processing of those data which, in accordance with the first subparagraph of Article 8(5) of Directive 95/46 and Article 10 of Regulation 2016/679, is subject to special restrictions. As the Commission observed, such processing may, by virtue of those provisions and subject to compliance with the other conditions of lawfulness laid down by that directive, be lawful in particular if appropriate and specific guarantees are provided for by national law, which may be the case where the information in question has been disclosed to the public by the public authorities in compliance with the applicable national law. 74 As regards those other conditions of lawfulness, it must be recalled that it follows from the requirements laid down in Article 6(1)(c) to (e) of Directive 95/46, now repeated in Article 5(1)(c) to (e) of Regulation 2016/679, that even initially lawful processing of accurate data may over time become incompatible with the directive or the regulation where those data are no longer necessary in the light of the purposes for which they were collected or processed. That is so in particular where they appear to be inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to those purposes and in the light of the time that has elapsed (judgment of 13 May 2014, Google Spain and Google, C-131/12, EU:C:2014:317, paragraph 93). 75 However, as stated in paragraph 66 above, even if the processing of data referred to in Article 8(5) of Directive 95/46 and Article 10 of Regulation 2016/679 does not correspond to the restrictions laid down by those provisions or the other conditions of lawfulness, such as those laid down in Article 6(1) (c) to (e) of the directive and Article 5(1)(c) to (e) of the regulation, the operator of a search engine must still ascertain, having regard to the reasons of substantial public interest referred to in Article 8(4) of the directive or Article 9(2)(g) of the regulation and in compliance with the conditions laid down in those provisions, whether the inclusion of the link to the web page in question in the list displayed following a search on the basis of the data subject’s name is necessary for exercising the freedom of information of internet users potentially interested in accessing that web page by means of such a search, protected by Article 11 of the Charter. 76 In this respect, it must be recalled that it follows from the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights that applications brought by individuals for the prohibition under Article 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, signed at Rome on 4 November 1950, of the making available on the internet by the various media of old reports of criminal proceedings that had been brought against them call for an examination of the fair balance to be struck between their right to respect for their private life and inter alia the public’s freedom of information. In seeking that fair balance, account must be taken of the essential role played by the press in a democratic society, which includes reporting and commenting on legal proceedings. Moreover, to the media’s function of communicating such information and ideas there must be added the public’s right to receive them. The European Court of Human Rights acknowledged in this context that the public had an interest not only in being informed about a topical event, but also in being able to conduct research into past events, with the public’s interest as regards criminal proceedings varying in degree, however, and possibly evolving over time according in particular to the circumstances of the case (ECtHR, 28 June 2018, M.L. and W.W. v. Germany, CE:ECHR:2018:0628JUD006079810, §§ 89 and 100 to 102). 77 It is thus for the operator of a search engine to assess, in the context of a request for de-referencing relating to links to web pages on which information is published relating to criminal proceedings brought against the data subject, concerning an earlier stage of the proceedings and no longer corresponding to the current situation, whether, in the light of all the circumstances of the case, such as, in particular, the nature and seriousness of the offence in question, the progress and the outcome of the proceedings, the time elapsed, the part played by the data subject in public life and his past conduct, the public’s interest at the time of the request, the content and form of the publication and the consequences of publication for the data subject, he or she has a right to the information in question no longer, in the curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document_print.jsf?docid=218106&text=&dir=&doclang=EN&part=1&occ=first&mode=DOC&pageIndex=0&cid=2571804 17/19