Publicising court rulings blocked due to GDPR

The Supreme Court has decided to block the publicising of court rulings until special legislation can be enacted that would comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation.

The judges issued a decision that would block any court ruling on the basis that there could be a risk that a disclosure of private information within the documents could violate GDPR.

The GDPR regulation, which was implemented last month, gives more control to people over their personal data and regulates the environment for international business

But there is no legal directive in Cyprus that would serve as guidance for officials who draft legal court documents.

The Supreme Court is also suggesting that a procedures or practice guidance rule be issued in Cyprus while also pushing for legislation that would resemble similar laws passed in the UK and Ireland, where both legal systems follow English Law and had to face the same questions regarding GDPR.

The decision could partially be problematic, given that information within the public record ought to be made public based on the freedom of information principle.

Cyprus has been scrambling over recent years to enable better access to public information, following calls for more transparency from many groups.

But the GDPR could be a major setback to that effort, with the Supreme Court pointing to the House to fix the problem.

The GDPR regulation became an EU directive in April 2016, which meant it had to be applied to all EU member states. However, it was not implemented until 25 May 2018.

Date protection commissioner weighs in

The Commissioner or Personal Data Protection, Irene Loizidou Nikolaidou, also weighed in on the issue later on Thursday.

Loizidou clarified that the GDPR directive does not require in and of itself any legislative action on the part of the Cyprus government.

However, the Supreme Court has the right to call for legislation as it pertains to the operations of the highest legal institution in the land, according to the commissioner.