In this episode we're hearing from James Filleul, the Editor of Bailiwick Express, who we’ve invited to the podcast as part of Project Bijou. We’ve turned the journalism table on him, so today he is interviewed by our commissioner, Emma Martins.

Project Bijou is a social initiative we launched in May 2021 in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. With this project we’re encouraging everyone to share stories, knowledge and experiences relating to ethical data use, in a way that benefits everyone. The project aims to support and nurture positive cultural change around how people and organisations treat people’s data. We hope to engage people on a cultural level, a level that goes beyond law. You can find out more at odpa.gg/bijou.

James tells us that as an Editor, the most frequent time he comes across the words ‘data protection’ is from someone using it to keep their activities OUT of the public domain, and close down a story. Journalism is often controversial; if it is done properly, it involves publishing information which someone usually doesn’t want to be public. Very often they reach for ‘data protection’ as their ‘weapon-of-choice’ to prevent that happening. Nearly always, this is based on a misunderstanding of the law, and it is why journalism is specifically addressed by data protection laws. Without good journalism, democracies stop being democratic; this reality places both a great privilege and a huge responsibility on journalists’ shoulders.