InPublishing: NUJ welcomes ICO agreement to protect journalists’ privacy
InPublishing: NUJ welcomes ICO agreement to protect journalists’ privacy
Publish Date: 2026-06-15 04:00:00
Source Domain: www.inpublishing.co.uk
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The Information Commissioner’s Office has agreed to withhold publishing the private addresses of freelance journalists upon request.
Tim Dawson: “The ICO’s policy to allow freelances to retain privacy is a welcome recognition of this issue that will make a lot more journalists feel comfortable about compliance.”
Photograph: Mina Rad on Unsplash.
The National Union of Journalists says until now, when journalists registered as data controllers, their details were entered on a public register. The regulator’s new approach comes after the NUJ highlighted the problem and individual members pressured for a change in its policy.
Freelances who wish to use this facility should phone the ICO at the time of registration on 0303 123 1113, and select option 1.
Tim Dawson, NUJ freelance organiser, said: “Journalists are often subject to harassment and intimidation, an issue made worse by the public availability of their private addresses. The ICO’s policy to allow freelances to retain privacy is a welcome recognition of this issue that will make a lot more journalists feel comfortable about compliance.”
Anyone who, for business purposes, collects and processes data that can identify another person must comply with the law and pay an annual fee to the regulator, ICO. Sole traders and directors of small companies are – because they perform all the functions of a small business, so are likely to be both data controllers and data processors for ICO purposes. ‘Journalistic material’ is excluded from GDPR regulations, but the data required to carry out the most minimal business is…
