Recital 41

(41) Non-governmental organisations, academics and investigative journalists have contributed to the objectives of the Union in the fight against money laundering, its predicate offences and terrorist financing. They should therefore be considered to have a legitimate interest in accessing beneficial ownership information, which is of vital importance for them to undertake their functions and exert public scrutiny, as appropriate. The ability to access the central registers should not be conditional on the medium or platform through which they carry out their activities, or on previous experience in the field. In order to enable such categories to carry out their activities effectively and avoid risks of retaliation, they should be able to access information on legal entities and legal arrangements without demonstrating a link with those entities or arrangements. As provided for under Union data protection rules, any access by beneficial owners to information on the processing made of their personal data should not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others, including the right to security of the person. Disclosure to the beneficial owner that persons acting for the purposes of journalism or civil society organisations have consulted their personal data risks undermining the safety of journalists and of members of civil society organisations who carry out investigations into potential criminal activities. Therefore, in order to reconcile the right to the protection of personal data with the freedom of information and expression for journalists in accordance with Article 85 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council (15) and in order to ensure the role of civil society organisations in the prevention, investigation and detection of money laundering, its predicate offences or terrorist financing in accordance with Article 23(1), point (d), of that Regulation, entities in charge of central registers should not share with beneficial owners information on the processing of their data by those categories of the public, but only the fact that persons acting for the purposes of journalism or civil society organisations have consulted their data.

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Source: EUR-Lex CELLAR · retrieved 2026-09-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.