EU rulings on whistleblowers and right-to-be-forgotten laws puts press freedom at risk

"The regulation continues to put a heavy onus on Internet companies, which are threatened with fines if they do not comply immediately with takedown requests. "The law still sets out a notice and takedown process that strongly encourages Internet intermediaries to delete challenged content, even if the challenge is legally groundless," Daphne Keller, director of Intermediary Liability at Stanford Law School's Center for Law and Society, warned last December.

Before going into effect, the bills have to be approved by the national parliaments of all 28 member states. And although few expect a reversal, there is a lot of space for interpretation. In the assessment of the final draft of the General Data Protection Regulation last December by Keller, from Stanford Law School, she promised a "gift of lifetime employment for data protection lawyers.""