In the two years since the first edition of this report was released, Southeast Europe has continued to see progress toward protecting whistleblowers from retaliation and harness their disclosures to fight crime and corruption. As in all regions, however, much work is needed to ensure that citizens and employees who report misconduct are not punished as a result.
Of the 10 countries profiled here, seven now have in place some form of legal protections for whistleblowers. This is up from four countries in mid-2015, thanks to laws passing or taking effect in Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro.
This number could rise soon, with policy-makers and activists working to develop new laws in Croatia and Moldova. Among the 10 countries, only in Bulgaria is there little momentum to strengthening whistleblower rights.
Along with the work of policy-makers and elected officials to pass new laws, activists and advocacy groups are expanding their political and public campaigns. In 2016 and 2017, NGO working groups were formed in Croatia, Macedonia and Moldova to advocate for new or improved laws. Campaigners are working to fix the laws in Kosovo and Serbia, and to pass entity-level laws in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In countries where laws recently were passed – particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia – activists and journalists are closely monitoring whether whistleblowers are benefiting from their enhanced rights.
In several countries, research and anecdotal evidence show that new laws do not always protect citizens and employees from being fired, demoted, harassed, sued or even prosecuted. These findings are being leveraged to close dangerous legislative gaps that expose whistleblowers to career, personal and financial ruin.
Representing a major victory for activists, spurious criminal charges filed against whistleblowers at the Tuzla Kvarc mining company in Bosnia and Herzegovina were dropped in December 2016. This followed an 18-month campaign that made headlines across the country and the region.
In Kosovo, Murat Mehmeti remains in his job at the Tax Administration after exposing a massive tax scam involving shell companies that his managers had been covering up.
In another hopeful trend, the region’s growing number of non-profit newsrooms is providing new outlets for whistleblowers to report corruption, and new platforms for their evidence to be published. These include, regionally, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and Balkan Leaks. At the national level, nearly every Southeast European country has an independent investigative journalism group; some have two or more.
This report is being released as the Southeast Europe Coalition on Whistleblower Protection completes its second year in operation. The Coalition is comprised of more than 30 NGOs in 13 countries that receive and investigate whistleblower disclosures and complaints, advise and support whistleblowers, and advocate for stronger whistleblower laws. This report is an update of a 2015 report published by the Regional Anti-Corruption Initiative.
Mark Worth and Arjan Dyrmishi
Co-coordinators, Southeast Europe Coalition on Whistleblower Protection
May 2017
