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Whistleblower is not a job like the Others

Rojypala at Malayalam Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

To each age its own heroes! The whistleblowers are the heroes of our generation today. Admittedly, if the world moves forward it is also because of ethical reason. But of course, the budgetary challenges of many states also explain the enthusiasm of the relevant authorities to encourage the recruitment of whistleblowers. Under pressure from the media, lawmakers want to act quickly and sometimes give the impression of improvisation. Particularly, there should be no confusion between today's whistleblowers and police or tax administration informants who have existed for centuries. Yet, this is far from being the case in many countries. Following the Panama Papers scandal, the French National Assembly recently decided that those with informations on tax evaders will be remunerated by the tax authorities. And many countries are already doing so. For example, and in relation with this dossier, Denmark would have pay more than € 800.000 to whistleblowers and the German Land North-Rhine-Westphalia more than € 18 million! And before that in November 2014 the LuxLeaks file exposed tax rulings with several dozen of multinational companies in Luxembourg. And in February 2015 the SwissLeaks file released financial datas about thousands of clients of Swiss banking institutions. But the debate today has changed: who could blame citizens aware of illegal activities to be more loyal to their country rather than to their employers? And naturally the question which is the focus of all attention is: how we can provide legal protection to whistleblowers. Undoubtedly, these people can be important in the fight against tax evasion and corruption. But if they operate for economic reasons only, there will always be some suspicion with regard to the sincerity of their action.

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