RightsCon Tunis 2019

This session will focus on developments in the field of whistleblower protection, particularly the new EU Whistleblower Directive, which was passed by the European Parliament in April 2019 and will become law sometime in the autumn. The culmination of a three year campaign by pan-European platform of civil society organisations, the Directive promises to be a breakthrough moment for public interest disclosure across Europe. New responsibilities for SMEs will give the Directive wide visibility. We will provide an overview of the new legislation - how it came about, what's in it and what issues need to be looked at when the Directive's provisions are transposed into national law. Elsewhere, protections for whistleblowers and journalists' sources is patchy. In Latin America, whistleblower protection has not kept pace with technological advances in journalism. Whistleblower protection as a field also has important links to the broad digital rights agenda. Regulations and ISO standards are embedding privacy enhancing technologies in law. Whistleblowing legislation also offers opportunities for protecting security researchers, who currently face significant legal jeopardy for trying to responsibly disclose important information in the public interest. We'll outline these issues and then open the session out for discussion about ways forward.