Whistleblower Protection

On 6 November 2017 at the American Corner in Skopje, students from the UACS School of Political Science who take the course in Administrative Law and Public Administration with Asst. Prof. Dr. Natalija Shikova attended the lecture “Whistleblower Protection Law and Civil Society” delivered by Tom Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project from Washington D.C., USA. Mr. Devine has a more than thirty years experience in the field and he has worked on over 5,000 cases for the protection of ‘whistleblowers’ who exposed governmental power abuses and made significant social changes. The students learned of various international examples connected with power misuse such as nuclear waste disposal, use of narcotics, planned events aimed at deferring the public opinion with the clear aim of covering up corruption. They also heard about general public reaction to such cases, as well as the role of the media and civil society in reveling the truth, in particular the importance of the role of ‘whistleblowers’ in preventing corruption, protection of the public good and public interest. The event was organized by the Institute for Strategic Research and Education, in cooperation with the U.S. Embassy in the Republic of Macedonia.