Whistleblowers: looking for European protection - Article

The second of a series of three thematic itineraries to explore the Resource Centre on Media Freedom through a curated aggregation of contents.

 Photo fillingthev0id CC BY-NC 2.0

Whistleblowers timeline Tuesday 24 October 2017 - Infographic

An overview of main events & documents that heated the debate on whistleblowing protection in Europe ... Whistleblowers timeline

Southeast Europe Coalition on Whistleblower Protection - Stakeholders

The Southeast Europe Coalition on Whistleblower Protection is a regional organization dedicated to strengthening legal protections and rights for whistleblowers. It does so by investigating whistleblower cases and raising awareness of the value of whistleblowing to fight crime and corruption. The Coalition is comprised of more than 30 NGOs and other groups from 13 Southeast Europe countries.

Protection of journalistic sources is a basic condition for press freedom - Legal Resources

The new judgment Becker v. Norway by the European Court of Human Rights strengthens the protection of journalistic sources

The Effects of Mass Surveillance on Journalists’ Relations With Confidential Sources - Academic Sources

A qualitative study on the way real or perceived surveillance impacts on the behaviour of journalists and their relationship with sources

Hermes Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights - Stakeholders

Hermes Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights aims at promoting and developing in the society the awareness of and the attention to transparency and accountability. Its aims are:

• supporting and developing free software with the purpose of increasing the Freedom of Speech online and, more in general, the protection of rights and personal freedom in a connected world;
• supporting and developing the whistleblowing free-software solution named “GlobaLeaks” aimed at private and public organizations which shall be free to adopt the same software for their initiatives;
• taking part in associations or organizations which share the same goals as the Hermes Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights in the field of promotion and protection of civil liberties, anonymity in a connected world, whistleblowing, freedom of speech and investigative journalism;
• supporting the development and promotion of the Tor2web project and of the TOR network and tools thereof in general;
• supporting the development and actual management of the LeakDirectory website, listing whistleblowing websites;
• hosting or attending events aimed at increasing the culture of Transparency (i.e., public-interest whistleblowing, OpenData, OpenGovernment etc.)

Encryption under Threat - Reports

Increasingly, cybersecurity and privacy are undermined in the name of security, for example tackling encryption tools. A report by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs explains why Germany should oppose this trend

Freedom of the Press Foundation - Stakeholders

Freedom of the Press Foundation supports public-interest journalism worldwide. Involving prominent investigative journalists such as Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras as well as whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden, the foundation focuses on government transparency and compliance with the law and the constitution: as they state, "we strive to make government as open and transparent as possible". To this end, the Foundation promotes advocacy campaigns to defend the rights of journalists and whistleblowers and to keep authorities accountable.

Freedom of the Press Foundation also provides direct support to journalists and media outlets, notably by launching crowdfunding campaigns aimed at supporting critical work carried out by non-profit watchdog organizations, in order to defuse political and financial pressure on them. The Foundation supports investigative reporting also by developing, advertising and teaching journalists to use a variety of tools aimed at protecting digital communications and at making whistleblower submission safer, such as the SecureDrop system. 

ECPMF Conference e-book: Introduction, presentations, and conclusions - Reports

A conference report collecting the materials of the conference "Promoting dialogue between the European Court of Human Rights and the media freedom community" of March 2017

Protecting the right to freedom of expression under the European Convention on Human Rights - Manuals

A handbook to assist judges, prosecutors, lawyers and human rights’ defenders in ensuring that all cases involving freedom of expression (FoE) are handled in conformity with states’ obligations under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as developed by the Strasbourg Court