The Act Schedule 17:  Offences relating to nuclear material and nuclear facilities Section 78: New defence for purposes of journalism and other special purposes
541.This section inserts a new defence into section 55(2) of the Data Protection Act 1998. The defence applies when a person acts for journalistic, literary or artistic purposes (referred to as the “special purposes”), with a view to the publication of journalistic, literary or artistic material and in the reasonable belief that their actions were justified as being in the public interest.