Draft law on protection of whistleblowers approved

The government has approved a draft law on the protection of whistleblowers, despite critics of the proposal who say that it does not go far enough. The Pirates party, for example, criticised the fact that the law in its current formulation does not apply to anonymous tipoffs and that it does not apply to the reporting of all crimes.

Previous efforts to pass such a law in the Czech Republic have repeatedly failed, with previous proposals consistently rejected. According to Minister of Justice Pavel Blažek, this draft is one that stands a chance of passing through the lower house and the Senate, but he did not rule out possible future amendments.

The head of the Pirates party Ivan Bartoš said that the current proposal is worse than the draft prepared by the previous government, and that his party did not vote in favour of it at Wednesday's Cabinet meeting.

Anti-corruption organizations have also criticised the law, saying the proposed rules are complicated and unclear and that there is a risk that whistleblowers will continue to be insufficiently protected from retaliation by employers.