Despite Its Enthusiasm For Edward Snowden, Switzerland Close To Passing Law To Make Whistleblowing Effectively Illegal

from the one-step-forward,-two-steps-back dept

Recently we wrote that Switzerland was keen for Edward Snowden to travel there to testify about US surveillance. Given that evident appreciation of the value of a whistleblower in revealing unsuspected wrong-doing, this news from Reuters that Switzerland's parliament is considering a law to tighten the rules governing this area is rather disappointing: Although the bill aims to clarify a grey area of the law, it will effectively outlaw whistleblowing unless Swiss authorities -- renowned worldwide as a model of efficiency -- fail to follow correct procedures. Apparently, this approach flows from the Swiss belief that employees have a fundamental duty to their employers, and so they must always report wrongdoings to them in the first instance. That's bad enough -- it could easily lead to the whisteblower being punished for speaking up -- but it gets worse: Any response from the authorities -- even a decision not to investigate -- would nullify an whistleblower's right to go to the media, said Zora Ledergerber, owner of Integrity Line LLC, which advises companies on internal reporting systems. Although that might seem to make sense in a country whose banking services pride themselves on their discretion, it's rather foolish, since it means that abuses and wrong-doing that could have been stopped will continue to fester, ultimately damaging the country and the rule of law there. The bill has been passed (original in German) by the Council of States, Switzerland's upper house, and now moves to the country's National Council for approval.

Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community. Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis. While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: ed snowden, switzerland, whistleblowers