Data protection organisation noyb in the article Swedish data brokers claim journalists’ legal protection to evade EU law writes that in Sweden large data brokers can simply obtain a “media licence”, exempting their entire business from all obligations under the EU’s strict privacy laws. In many other countries (like the Netherlands) the situation is worse, because journalism is not regulated and journalists are not screened on integrity.

In future there will be a similar loophole for journalists in European anti-money laundering law. In the current version of the AML package, anyone calling themselves a journalist has free access to the register of beneficial owners (ubo-register).