Whistleblowers Get Better Protection in Serbia

A new law offering stronger protection to those who reveal abuses and corruption goes into effect in Serbia this week.

So far whistleblowers have had only administrative protection from the Anti-corruption Agency, but now they are entitled to court protection if they seek re-employment having been dismissed for reporting corruption, for example.

"For the first time, the state fully stands behind those who suffer because they defend the public interest and dared to point a finger and say, 'This is a crime and I'm not about to keep quiet,'" Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic said in Belgrade on June 3.

Not everyone is entirely happy with the new law. Transparency Serbia has said that the new law fails to prescribe criminal sanctions for those who endanger whistleblowers.

"Although the lack of sanctions will not narrow the scope of protection for whistleblowers, it will not enable the adequate punishment of those responsible for violating the rights of people who report corruption," Bojana Medenica, a Transparency Serbia representative, told BIRN.

A legal expert with the Pi?taljka (Whistle) organization, Jelena Stojanovic, said her group would monitor implementation of the law very carefully.

"In 2014, we had 97 people who obtained formal whistleblower status. When one receives this status, the Anti-corruption agency warns their employers that they must not be a victim of retaliation at the office. But the Agency was not able to protect them legally, and in practice all the whistleblowers lost their jobs or were moved to lower-paid jobs," she told BIRN.

Corruption is widely seen as one of the biggest obstacles facing Serbia on its path towards EU membership.

Transparency International's corruption perceptions index in...