ML and WW v Germany, Application numbers 60798/10 and 65599/10, Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights of 28 June 2018
The freedom of press protected under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) prevails over the so-called ‘right to be forgotten’ pursuant to Article 8 ECHR, in the light of the importance of maintaining accessible web archives in the public interest, even when adverse impact over the right to privacy is amplified by search engines, provided that there are no serious reasons to overcome the balance struck by national authorities between the conflicting rights. The case provides a good example of the Court’s evaluation on the balancing between the protection of private life related to the use of data, on the one hand, and freedom of the press to maintain archives in the public interest on the other hand.