I CAN’T emphasise too strongly how dangerous is the controversial EU ruling on articles being deemed irrelevant or out of date and removed from Google searches.
A Bolton News’ story was one of the latest to be highlighted under the new “right to be forgotten” rules - a 2010 court case about four men who had attacked a group of solders.
This newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Ian Savage, rightly spoke against the removal of this article and underlined the importance of the freedom of the press.
The reality is that, once you open the door to repression as this new ruling does, censorship rushes in. History should not be re-written; people should not feel able to demand the removal of items about themselves just because it’s more convenient. And press freedom should be fiercely protected.
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