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Recently, a number of companies, including debt consolidation firm Dutsur and SA, have refused to respond to media inquiries on behalf of their customers, citing POPIA as a reason.
However, the work of journalists is particularly exempt from the law, for example when consumer journalists make a request on behalf of a member of the public.
“POPIA’s Section 7 law clearly does not apply to the processing of personal information for the purposes of journalism,” Nomzamo Zondi, a spokeswoman for the Information Supervisor, told the South African National Editors Forum.
“So, in this case, the companies are not willing to respond to media inquiries based on POPA – not right.
“Also, in this case, the journalist has received an agreement from the informant to process their personal information, which makes the case of the journalist even stronger.”
Isaac Minar, chairman of Sanef’s Information Access and Media Policy Committee, added:
“In light of the Supervisor’s response, journalists are encouraged to report companies to IR if they do not want to respond to reasonable requests on behalf of users.”
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