Parliament adopts law to protect whistleblowers

Parliament adopts law to protect whistleblowers

BELGRADE -- The Serbian parliament on Tuesday adopted a law on protection of whistleblowers protection.

It provides for "full protection for individuals reporting suspected corruption and should encourage everyone to report malpractice."

Under the law, whistleblowing is the practice of disclosing information to expose breach of regulations, violations of human rights, exercise of public authority that is contrary to its purpose, threat to life, public health or safety, or to prevent large-scale damage.

A whistleblower is a person who reports misconduct related to his or her work engagement, employment procedures, using services provided by authorities, holders of public offices or public services, business cooperation and right of ownership of a company.

The law also concerns those linked with whistleblowers who suffer adverse consequences resulting from whistleblowing but are not whistleblowers themselves.

The law offers full protection to those who report suspected corruption and eliminates the deficiencies of inadequate and insufficient protection of some categories of whistleblowers.

Under the new legislation, adopted on Tuesday, individuals who report corruption related to their employment, regardless of their status in a company, cannot be persecuted for doing so because the state is offering them court protection through lawsuits before a high court in an urgent procedure.

Should the individuals face any repressive measures for reporting corruption, they can refer to a court, which has efficient protection measures, and can initially impose a temporary measure at short notice.

If the individual has been...