Archives and Maltese legislation on data protection and freedom of information : square pegs in round holes?

Abstract

This paper studies the Maltese National Archives Act and asks to what extent this law conflicts with the Maltese Data Protection Act and the Maltese Freedom of Information Act. It discusses whether the National Archives Act can be considered to be a natural extension of the Freedom of Information Act and whether there are any inconsistencies between the National Archives Act and the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act. It addresses the questions whether the Data Protection Act should be used to deny access at the National Archives to records which disclose private information on a particular person, and which of these three laws has the upper hand at the National Archives of Malta. The aim is to clarify the inter-relationship between the three laws under study and the law related to access to documents held at the National Archives.