Whistleblowers are slowly losing trust in the media as noted, they are rarely sharing privileged information in fear of retaliation from either their bosses or those in authority.

In recent years, a number of countries have ratified laws on whistleblower protection. These statutes are however not practical even though whistleblowing is considered a critical pillar in improving effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts.

Malawi’s current state

Malawi’s graft busting body, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has taking lead in shaping direction to have whistleblower protection laws in place as the country in its current state does not have a standalone legislation for protection of whistle-blowers.

ACB Director General, Martha Chizuma at an engagement of stakeholders on whistleblower protection, noted that lack of a clear laws deters people from reporting crime in the long run fueling corruption.

Chizuma hopes, a legally binding law will expedite investigations and prosecution of corruption.

At the moment, whistleblowers are shielded by the corrupt practices act, section 51 A (5) only imposes a MK50,000 kwacha fine an equivalent of $50- and two-years imprisonment on anyone who victimizes whistle-blowers.

Whistleblowing globally

In 2019, the European Union (EU) issued a whistleblowing directive compelling companies with more than 250 employees to implement by 2021. Two years, past the deadline, many countries are yet to comply with this directive.

To date, close to 59 countries are believed to have laws ratified whistleblower protection laws including the United States of America (USA).

Indiana University’s (IU) Associate Professor of Media Law and Policy Studies, Antony Fargo is now lobbying for national laws on whistleblower protection in the USA noting that the existing laws are fully embraced in selected states.

“We have weak whistleblower laws here in the USA, once a person goes outside their agency to talk about things that are going wrong, they are no longer protected once they go to the media, they can be fired or prosecuted if the information was classified in some way,” he indicated.

Quick Fix solutions

It is undisputable, whistleblowers play a critical role in keeping our governments honest, efficient and accountable. Working laws are the only way to keep up with the pace of countries that are much better when it comes to holding those in authority into account.

Said Fargo “Emerging democracies should recognize that whistleblower laws are not evil but designed to make systems better.”

Locally, a University of Malawi (UNIMA) Media and Communications Expert, Dr Sydney Kankuzi is putting the blame on failure to implement ratified laws.

He is unconvinced, the anti-corruption fight cannot be won in the absence of working whistleblower protection laws.

“Failure to implement policies or laws is one of the challenges we are facing, whistleblowers do not feel protected, that aside, the country needs policies to help in the enforcement of these laws,” he added.

Journalists’ perspective of whistleblower laws

Investigative journalist, Gregory Gondwe describes whistleblower laws, a critical tool to advancing journalists work as he said such statutes go a long way in fighting corruption and strengthening democracy.

“There would be no journalism if there were no sources, having a whistleblower protection law provides a mechanism to allow people that are seeing or observing wrongdoing to expose such thereby allowing investigative journalists to do their job by investigating alleged corruption and misuse of power.

“Malawi needs to have whistleblower protection and reward laws because they are the most powerful tool for incentivizing whistleblowers to report wrongdoing, Malawi is a member of the United Nations which also recognizes the whistleblower protection.”