An Israeli diamond billionaire is facing defeat in an audacious attempt to use data protection laws to stifle one of his loudest critics.
Beny Steinmetz is engaged in a long-running legal battle with Global Witness, a campaign group that has raised “corruption concerns” about how BSG Resources, the mining arm of his family conglomerate, acquired rights to Africa’s largest iron ore project. Both Mr Steinmetz and BSG Resources deny wrongdoing in relation to the Simandou concession in Guinea.
Lawyers for Mr Steinmetz and three BSGR directors had tried to invoke the UK’s Data Protection Act to force Global Witness to reveal what data it held in relation to them and, if necessary, to destroy it. That move, which Global Witness said would compromise its confidential sources, was the first time privacy laws had been used in such a manner.
Last week, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) rejected Mr Steinmetz’s request, saying Global Witness’s activities were exempt from data protection requirements because they were “for the purposes of journalism”. Global Witness says on its website that it campaigns “to stop elites getting away with looting entire states . . . and for an end to the exploitation of our environment”.
The case has been keenly watched by lawyers at news organisations, who foresaw a significant impact on investigative journalism had the lawsuit succeeded. Leigh Baldwin, an investigative journalist at Global Witness, said the decision was “a victory for press freedom because it defines journalists by what they do, not whom they work for”.
A spokesman for the claimants said: “The ICO has not applied the law correctly and we will be asking the courts to review its decision.”
The claimants argued that Global Witness was part of a campaign by George Soros, whose Open Society Foundation is one of the non-government organisation’s big funders.
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