Anti-corporate activism

Haque is one of 10 Bangladeshi workers employed by the INCA factory in Lezha. The manager says Albania no longer supplies enough labour, forcing him to seek workers far away.

"I plan to stay here for a long time because I have no other solution," Abudalep, 28, another Bangladeshi migrant employed at the INCA factory told BIRN. "In my country there is no work," he adds.

Ljubljana – The implementation of the EU directive on the protection of whistleblowers is extremely important for the fight against corruption, agreed participants of Tuesday’s round table debate on whistleblowers hosted by the British-Slovenian Chamber of Commerce.

Western Balkans is setting an example 

Interior view of Agora building of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France. Photo: Wikimedia commons/Adrian Grycuk

Supreme Court authorities will rule Monday on the status of the witness protection regime for key whistleblowers who have been summoned to testify by the parliamentary committee conducting a preliminary inquiry into the handling of the Novartis bribery case by the previous administration. 

A delegation from Parliament's preliminary inquiry committee into the handling of the Novartis bribery case by the previous administration petitioned the Supreme Court on Thursday to look into the status of its three key whistleblowers.

"He is the first, because the notion of whistleblower did not exist in the Strasbourg Court's vocabulary until then," Vitalie Zama, one of the lawyers in Guja's case, told BIRN.

"And the first question that was asked was whether or not to protect the whistleblowers; whether freedom of expression exists for them or not."

'I suffered the consequences'

A colourful cast of characters brings an added dose of zest and intrigue to this week's collection of Premium stories as we look at the travails of modern-day sultans, American envoys, local whistleblowers or prime ministers in waiting.

The whir of sewing machines sounds from street-level windows all over the downtown Athens districts of Patissia, Galatsi and Stathmos Larissis is a constant monotone. Every once in a while, a person emerges from these basement workshops for a cigarette break or to get something from a kiosk.

Oil majors Exxon Mobil, Total and Repsol are among members of two consortia that have submitted bids to explore for oil and gas off Greece.

The World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos begins today, January 23rd and it will last until Friday.

In the last day  a statement by US President Donald Trump is also scheduled.

A large-scale protest was planned against his participation today, but the authorities banned any demonstrations due to a heavy snowfalls.