"We cannot change the past, but we have the future in our own hands" (Anonymous) This is one way of defining one of the many messages conveyed by chronicles written in villages.
The village chronicle helps us look into the past and record present moments and events in the village. Nowadays, we still see the need to record important historical moments. Municipal chronicling is a legal obligation in Slovakia under Section 4(3)(s) of Slovak National Council Act No. 369/1990 Coll. on municipal administration, and since Act No. 80/1920 Coll. on municipal memorial books was repealed in 2018, together with Government Regulation No. 169/1932 SB. on municipal memorial books, it became the only valid legal norm.
Despite the fact that the legal rules for keeping chronicles have been repealed, the basic rules for keeping chronicles can be derived from the following legal regulations:
- Constitution of the Slovak Republic,
- Criminal Code,
- Act No. 40/1964 Coll. Civil Code,
- REGULATION (EU) 2016/679 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation), hereinafter referred to as the "GDPR Regulation",
- Act No. 18/2018 Coll. on the protection of personal data and on amendments to certain acts,
- Act No. 185/2015 Coll. Copyright Act.
Writing a chronicle is a very commendable but also demanding activity. However, a municipal chronicle is not just a book recording events, but also an archive of documentary attachments to annual records. These attachments may include photographs, printed material, audiovisual works, recorded interviews with municipal memorials or important personalities. There are even chroniclers who collect three-dimensional objects.
First and foremost, it is necessary to take into account the protection of personality.
According to § 11 of the Civil Code No. 40/1964, a natural person has the right to protection of their personality, in particular their life and health, civil honor and human dignity, as well as their privacy, name, and expressions of a personal nature.
Section 12 of the Civil Code No. 40/1964 stipulates that:
- Documents of a personal nature, portraits, images and audio and video recordings relating to a natural person or their expressions of a personal nature may only be produced or used with their consent.
- Consent is not required if documents of a personal nature, portraits, images, sound or image and sound recordings are made or used for official purposes on the basis of the law.
- Portraits, images, and audio and video recordings may also be made or used in an appropriate manner without the consent of the natural person for scientific and artistic purposes and for press, film, radio, and television reporting. However, even such use must not conflict with the legitimate interests of the natural person.
Last but not least, we must not forget about the protection of personal data. According to the GDPR, personal data is defined as follows: "personal data" means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (hereinafter referred to as "data subject"); an identifiable natural person is a person who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person." This definition clearly shows that chronicles contain personal data to varying degrees.
The municipality decides on the scope of entries in the chronicle. The processing of personal data for the purpose of recording in the chronicle does not require the consent of the data subject whose data is being recorded, provided that only events with the number of persons or, where applicable, their first and last names are recorded. The chronicler should process personal data with great care and only to the minimum extent necessary.
It is up to the chronicler to decide whether to record events relating to the private lives of individuals, such as weddings, births, and significant life anniversaries. Such entries in the chronicle must not, by the extent of the personal data recorded, interfere in an unreasonable manner with the privacy of the persons concerned, i.e. if the entry in the chronicle contains the name, surname, address, or date or year of birth, such processing is subject to consent to the processing of personal data, not to mention the need for consent in the case of disclosure of personal data to third parties, as this is another purpose of the processing.
Each municipality is required to appoint a chronicler – a person who should be intellectually and professionally qualified to collect and process data and information.
The chronicler is obliged to maintain confidentiality regarding data that is not related to their work and must be cautious when providing personal data to third parties, i.e. when publishing the chronicle.
The chronicle is kept in writing or electronically and, in accordance with the principle of personal data protection, is not published on the operators' website. It is accessible under certain conditions:
Anyone may inspect the chronicle. A person requesting access to the chronicle (researcher) should, upon request, fill out a research card in accordance with § 12 of Act No. 395/2002 Z. on archives and registries and on amendments to certain laws, in which the operator specifies the conditions for viewing the chronicle, and access itself should only be granted to an authorized person – the chronicler.
In the past, chronicles were written in great detail, as there was no system for registering the population or keeping records. Now that we have public administration information systems for registering the population and keeping records, it is appropriate to write chronicles from the perspective of the life of the municipality and significant events in it, and to try to keep personal data to a minimum.
After all, the result of the chronicler's work is not only for us, their contemporaries, but is mainly a kind of testimony of the past and present for the future.
SOURCES:
Laws:
- Act of the Slovak National Council No. 369/1990 Coll. on municipal administration
- Civil Code 40/1964 Coll.
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