17 December 2021 is the deadline for European Union countries to implement Directive 2019/1937, of 23 October, approved by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, on whistleblowers. We explain the figure of the whistleblower and how this new law affects us.

A whistleblower, a whistleblower, a person who works for a public body or a company, and who publicly denounces some irregularity, usually of a government or a corporation, that is of public interest. This is how we could define a whistleblower.

It is a concept that is not new but has gained some notoriety in the last two decades due to the numerous cases that have come to light. Above all, thanks to WikiLeaks, an international non-profit, non-censorship organisation founded by Julian Assange in October 2006 in Iceland, which is dedicated to publishing secret documents anonymously, protecting the sources of information.

These may be issues of corruption, violation of any law, human rights violations, etc., but in general they are revelations of information or denunciations that have an ethical component. In other words, the whistleblower considers it a personal duty and a matter of integrity towards society to give this information.

Manning, Snowden, Falciani

There are cases such as Bradley Manning, now Chelsea Manning, a former US army soldier and intelligence analyst who handed over thousands of classified military documents and diplomatic cables exposing many of the atrocities committed by the US in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There is also the case of Edward Snowden, who uncovered much of the already illegal industrial espionage by the US government in the United States and other countries, especially in the European Union.

Likewise, outside the WikiLeaks environment, there is the famous case of Hervé Falciani, known as the Falciani list, where this French-Italian systems engineer provided a list of more than 130,000 tax evaders with bank accounts in Switzerland, while working at HSBC Private Bank.

Legal protection

The figure of the whistleblower is recognised and protected by law at the international level and also at the national level in many countries. At least in theory, because in practice we have seen that, when it comes to certain establishment government interests, these protections often do not exist or are ignored under the pretext that they constitute espionage, treason, or the disclosure of information that endangers others or goes against the national interest. And so it is that many often end up in prison or in exile, accused and convicted of various charges of dubious legality, but curiously all of them coincide in having exposed government corruption, illegal government activity or state terrorism.

European Directive

However, in compliance with the European Directive on the protection of whistleblowers, Spain, and the rest of the member states, must forcibly incorporate these new rules into their legislation by 17 December of the same year.

Following the public consultation held last January, several bills have been presented by different political parties which, despite having room for manoeuvre, will have to implement a whole series of measures approved by the European Parliament, aimed at guaranteeing equal protection for whistleblowers, regardless of the EU member state to which they belong.

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!