Britain 'must resist' right to be forgotten ruling, David Cameron told

David Cameron has been warned that the 'deeply problematic' ruling poses a threat to the public’s human right to receive information (Getty Images)

David Cameron has been urged by Britain’s media organisations to “firmly resist” the potential implications of the controversial “right to be forgotten” ruling by the European Court which allows complainants to demand removal of online material from search results.

In a letter from the Society of Editors, which has the backing of senior figures at the BBC, Sky News and ITN as well as major newspaper groups, the Prime Minister is warned that the “deeply problematic” ruling poses a threat to the public’s human right to receive information.

Google received 70,000 requests for articles to be removed soon after the court’s ruling in May and many have already been delisted from searches.

The letter claims that a “vital principle is at stake”. It calls on Mr Cameron to resist any attempt to extend the ruling from search engines to the archives of newspaper websites.

The Society has also expressed its “serious cause for concern” to the Article 29 Working Party, a committee of European data protection chiefs, which is meeting in Brussels today with Google to discuss the ruling.