306
EVI LASKARI, HONORARY VOLUME
. The origins of the right to be forgotten
. Legal foundation
The right to be forgotten (the right to oblivion, droit à l’oubli, diritto all’oblio)
was not a novelty introduced by the European Parliament’s Regulation Proposal,
but rather a simple reaffirmation of a preexisting right that had not always been
referred to as the right to be forgotten as such, but which is nonetheless a corol-
lary to the wider freedom of developing one’s own personality. The right to be
forgotten is applicable to individuals convicted of crimes who have served their
sentences. Indeed, convicted persons’ reintegration into society is an extremely
arduous process, as they must not only rebuild their lives but must cope with so-
ciety’s disdain and continuing rejection.
3
a. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
On a European level, the right to be forgotten is guaranteed through the right to
respect for private and family life (article 8 ECHR). As recognized by the Council
of Europe in Recommendation (2003) 13 (principle 18), the right to protection
of privacy includes the right to protect the identity of persons in connection with
their prior offences after they complete their prison sentences. An exception to
this protection is only in the event when an individual has consented to the dis-
closure of their identity or in cases where these persons and their prior offence
remain of public concern (e.g., sexual predators) or have become of public con-
cern anew.
b. Greece’s Constitution
The right to be forgotten is guaranteed in the Greek Constitution primarily via
the wider entitlement to freely develop one’s personality (article 5§1), in con-
junction with the guarantee of human dignity (article 2§1), and also through the
protection of the right to private life (article 9) and the protection of personal
data and of a person’s informational self-determination (article 9 ), intended to
be construed as the right of every person not to become the object of journalistic
interest pertaining to painful or unpleasant events of a person’s past.
4
3. See Lilian Mitrou, The publicity of sanctioning or the sanctioning of publicity, Sakkoulas
Press, Athens-Thessaloniki 2012, pp. 156-157. In Greek.
4. See Charalambos Anthopoulos, The freedom to political discourse and the protection of the
honor of political figures: Decisions Nos. 467/10.10.2006 and 51/30.1.2007 of the Greek
National Council for Radio and Television, Administrative Law Reports 2009, p. 234 (245 et
seq.). In Greek.
