There is blatant illegality concerning visual material from the premises of the Holy Monastery of Saint Habakkuk, which has been widely broadcast in the last 24 hours. This lies in the fact that videos that have been published, which are the product of Closed Circuit Video Surveillance (CCTV) systems installed in the monastery premises, recorded sound.
In general, Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) is legal under conditions of the legislation in force, which is very often called upon to interpret by the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection, Eirini Loizidou Nicolaidou. This also suggests that the issue of installing such image recording systems is not so simple.
However, the issue with sound recording is much clearer. It is explicitly prohibited. The Commissioner herself mentioned this to us in a statement to Phileleftheros. After first explaining to us that there is no question of even discussing audio recording cases, referring to it as illegal, she explained: “In any case, the use of sound from all closed circuits is very intrusive.”
However, the legality of the visual material in general is also under scrutiny, regardless of whether or not audio was recorded. It is not clear at this stage whether these Closed Circuit Video Surveillance (CCTV) devices are the product of legal actions and whether their installation and use were carried out based on the specific provisions of the legislation.
It is no coincidence that the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection, Eirini Loizidou Nicolaidou, has asked the Police for clarification on these closed circuits.
The competent official wants to find out where the cameras were installed, whether they were taking pictures of public places, whether they served the purpose for which they were installed, or whether they violated the rights of third parties without their knowledge.
According to our newspaper’s information, the Commissioner had already sent a letter to the Cyprus Police asking for clarifications. A reply was expected by early next week.
