Whistleblowers in Serbia

The path of whistleblowers in Serbia is difficult as, instead of receiving the support of state institutions, they are often exposed to the persecution of those who are formally charged with their protection. Examples of completed court proceedings that were initiated based on whistleblowers’ reports are very rare. In the few such cases, the reported officials did not suffer any serious consequences, and no one has ever been convicted in cases where whistleblowers’ disclosures involved higher-ranking government officials. There are also no examples of absence of resistance to whistleblowers, regardless of whether they provided information on corruption of local inspectors related to parking fines, or that of ministers in relation to arms trafficking. They suffered mobbing, professional degradation, and were in most cases finally dismissed.

This text contains just some of the numerous examples of whistleblowing that paint a picture of the attitude towards whistleblowers in Serbia:

• the “Krušik” case,
• the examples of whistleblowing in the Ministry of the Interior,
• the cases of whistleblowing in public companies and public administration

This article is part of a joint effort by the Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), the National Coalition for Decentralisation (NKD), the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) and Partners for Democratic Change to encourage greater citizen participation in decision-making through the “Citizens Have Power” project, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of USAID.