[seandougall]

Art. 85 of the GDPR defines the exemptions in terms of how the data is used, not with respect to who uses it.

> For processing carried out for journalistic purposes or the purpose of academic artistic or literary expression, Member States shall provide for exemptions or derogations ... if they are necessary to reconcile the right to the protection of personal data with the freedom of expression and information.

You can of course shift the argument to "what is journalism?", which does indeed have some fuzzy boundaries, but to claim that investigating and exposing widespread government corruption is anywhere near those fuzzy boundaries is a stretch, to say the least.