BBC expresses concern over Google’s removal of editor Robert Peston’s blog following ECJ’s ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling

The BBC this morning was notified by Google of the removal with the following statement:

"Notice of removal from Google Search: we regret to inform you that we are no longer able to show the following pages from your website in response to certain searches on European versions of Google."

The removal now means his blog, written in 2007, will no longer be visible when searching on Google in Europe.

A BBC spokesman said: “We’re surprised that this is the outcome of the ECJ ruling and concerned at the implications of the removal from search of this type of material."

Peston himself said in his post today: “…to all intents and purposes the article has been removed from the public record, given that Google is the route to information and stories for most people.

“So why has Google killed this example of my journalism?

“Well it has responded to someone exercising his or her new 'right to be forgotten', following a ruling in May by the European Court of Justice that Google must delete "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant" data from its results when a member of the public requests it."

The court ruled that Google and other search engines must consider requests from people for information deemed “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” to be filtered from its search listings last month.

The news triggered debate among media lawyers, as well as advertisers as to the potential negative fallout of the ruling on both data and privacy in the digital world.

Meanwhile Google boss Larry Page has previously criticised the ruling.