We investigate the electromagnetic mass differences of SU(3) baryons, using an "modelindependent approach" within a chiral soliton model. The electromagnetic self-energy corrections to the masses of the baryon are expressed as the baryonic two-point correlation function of the electromagnetic currents. Using the fact that the electromagnetic current can be treated as an octet operator, and considering possible irreducible representations of the correlation function, we are able to construct a general collective operator for the electromagnetic self-energies, which consists of three unknown parameters. These parameters are fixed, the empirical data for the electromagnetic mass differences of the baryon octet being employed. We predict those of the baryon decuplet and antidecuplet. In addition, we obtain various mass relations between baryon masses within the corresponding representation with isospin symmetry breaking considered. We also predict the physical mass differences of the baryon decuplet. The results are in good agreement with the existing data.