DPA case CDP/COMP/144/2022 (news publisher) – Order (Malta, 2023)

On 11 October 2023 Malta’s Information and Data Protection Commissioner decided CDP/COMP/144/2022 concerning an anonymised news publisher and an old online article about a former gambling-company executive. The complainant requested relief under Article 17 GDPR, disputing continued search visibility and aspects of the report. The Commissioner distinguished the primary publisher from search-engine operators, confined this proceeding to the publisher, and balanced privacy and reputation against expression and press archives under Article 85 GDPR and Article 9 of Malta’s Data Protection Act. It did not treat the journalistic report as inaccurate personal data or order its deletion. The adopted remedy under Article 58(2) required the publisher to place a no-index metatag in the page’s HTML head, keeping the originally published content intact while blocking external search-engine indexing. Compliance and confirmation were required within 20 days of receipt. The decision imposes no administrative fine; possible future enforcement for non-compliance is not a present fine. The printed decision date onpage 17, rather than PDF creation or upload dates, is used. The appeal notice does not establish a later appeal outcome or finality.