1. Role of civil society in promotion and protection of whistleblowers
Regional Workshop on Whistleblower Protection in Security Sector
Podgorica 7-8 May 2019

2. Southeast Europe Coalition on Whistleblower Protection
The Southeast Europe Coalition on Whistleblower Protection is the world’s only regional organization that specializes in protecting whistleblowers, strengthening whistleblower rights, and utilizing whistleblowing as a crime-fighting and anti-corruption tool.
Founded in 2015, the Coalition is comprised of some 20 NGOs, journalism groups, research institutions and independent experts from 16 Southeast and Eastern European countries, as well as several regional and international organizations.
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine.

3. Southeast Europe Coalition on Whistleblower Protection
The Coalition core priorities:
developing and advocating for new and improved whistleblower protection laws
supporting and advising individual whistleblowers
investigating and publicizing whistleblower disclosures and retaliation complaints
launching new and expanding existing civil society campaigns
ensuring whistleblower laws are properly enforced and implemented
raising public awareness of whistleblowing’s role in enhancing accountability and justice

4. Ensuring whistleblower laws are properly enforced and implemented
advocating for reforms to laws, policies and practices where needed, based on documented failures in the system
meeting with public authorities to ensure official procedures are being followed
identifying new cases and retaliation complaints
contacting whistleblowers (when possible) to determine whether official procedures are being followed
reporting case outcomes and other findings to the public, the media and all relevant stakeholders

5. Supporting and advising individual whistleblowers
determine the person’s individual needs.
providing detailed, individualized advice and direction on how – or whether – to make a report, and to whom the report should be made
providing information on the person’s legal rights in his/her country
forwarding the person’s information to an authority or regulator, while preserving the person’s anonymity
referring the person to a journalist for possible media coverage of the issue
referring the person to an attorney for additional advice possible representation
intervening with authorities and regulators to help ensure the person’s report and/or retaliation complaint is thoroughly investigated and any whistleblower policies are properly followed

6. Raising public awareness of whistleblowing’s role in enhancing accountability and justice
Changing public perceptions has the important added value of empowering employees to come forward with reports of crime, corruption and public health dangers.
more reports lead to greater citizens awareness, which leads to more reports.
Public outreach efforts,
media,
websites
social media
public events

8. International Whistleblower Day
2017 in Skopje
2018 in Prishtina
2019 in Tirana
The Free Speech Award, awarded to whistleblowers or activists

9. Free Speech Award 2018
Gjorgi Lazarevski and Zvonko Kostovski exposed covertly recorded wiretaps of political opponents that were allegedly recorded by the government of former Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. Murat Mehmeti publicly disclosed the organized network of fiscal evasion of more than 200 Kosovar businesses worth million of Euros

10. Free Speech Award 2019
Klodiana Lala, n investigative journalist in Albania for more than 15 years, covering crime and corruption for channel 24-TV News – including misconduct committed by politicians and their associates.