Debate about Whistleblowers’ Role Hot Topic in AC

January 28, 2011

Bea Edwards at the whistleblower workshop.

The American Center in Prague hosted a workshop “Strengthening Whistleblower Protection and Perceptions“ on January 26th and 27th.  The organizers – the Open Society Fund Prague and the Washington-based NGO Government Accountability Project (GAP) - presented the complexity of the issue of whistle-blowing and best practices on whistle-blower protection to Czech watchdog NGOs and investigative journalists, focusing on whistleblower protection measures including American and British legislation, investigative reporting methods as well as access to information.

Bea Edwards of GAP said at the seminar that whistleblower protection from retaliation must exist in order to present a clear alternative to passive acceptance of wrongdoing.  At the same time, it’s necessary to emphasize the benefits of whistle-blowing to the society.  Dylan Blaylock of GAP and David Kaplan of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project talked about importance of cooperation between NGOs and journalists on information-sharing.  Other experts present at the event included Cathy James from Public Concern at Work in London and Brant Houston from the University of Illinois.