Welcome to a special series of the Whistleblowing Now and Then podcast, called:
The Public Interest and National Security Whistleblowing: Looking Back, Thinking Forward.
This 3-part series is a collaboration between Whistleblowing International Network and Kaeten Mistry, Associate Professor of History at the University of East Anglia, and co-author of the book Whistleblowing Nation: The History of National Security Disclosures and Cult of State Secrecy.
This week’s episode looks at Europe and Latin America. Events in the UK and the US often dominate the agenda when it comes to secrecy and whistleblowing, but the debates and traditions outside the Anglosphere are a crucial part of the discussion. Today we explore these different secrecy cultures and the indigenous roots of concepts and civil society action. And we grapple with the role of historical memory and the legacy of authoritarian regimes.
To unpack this, we sit down with two leading experts on whistleblowing in Europe and Latin America. Bruno Galizzi, co-founder of the European Whistleblowing Institute, and Jean-Philippe Foegle, a jurist who was instrumental in drafting and passing the new French whistleblower law, which was adopted in March of 2022.
Additional Reading:
Le Monde – Lanceurs d'alerte, histoire d'un concept
A podcast by the prominent french newspaper Le Monde about the history of whistleblowers in the French context, and how the term “lanceur d'alerte” was coined.
Conseil d'Etat – Les droit d'alerte : signaler, traiter, protéger
A landmark report by the French council of state on whistleblowers, which inspired the 2016 “Sapin 2” law and contributed to the legitimization of whistleblowers in France.
Lanceur d'alerte :entretien avec Francis Chateauraynaud
An interview with Francis Chateauraynaud, the sociologist who coined the notion of 'lanceur d'alerte' in the 90's.