Roundtable Discussion: Online Whistle-blowing and Ethical Journalism

Online Whistle-blowing and Ethical Journalism

Roundtable Discussion

Saturday, June 6, from 16.30 East European Time
At the Red House Centre for Culture and Debate
15 Lyuben Karavelov, Sofia

Among other important aspects of the strategic use of the internet and ICTs by human rights’ advocates and whistleblowers, the case of Edward Snowden highlighted yet again the importance of ethical and professional norms of journalism for safeguarding the privacy of individuals whose names appear in leaked secret documents, as well as the safety of whistleblowers and sources themselves.

In Snowden’s own words, delivered most recently in the Academy Award winning documentary Citizen Four (Poitras 2014) it is the responsibility if journalists to make sure that the information leaked by a whistleblower like himself should be presented to the public so that no harm is done to innocent individuals. This high burden of responsibility comes along with moral and legal choices to be made by journalists, media decision makers and legal experts. What are the dilemmas and how are they handled in different parts of Europe is the question that this evening event will seek to provide an answer to.

Participants include:

- Gillian Phillips, Director of Editorial Legal Services, Guardian News & Media Limited (remotely);
- Anriette Esterhuysen, Executive Director of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC);
- Nikolay Staykov, co-founder and editor of NOresharski.com and former deputy editor at Capital;
- active journalists, participating in BlueLink’s virtual online magazine Evromegdan.bg, funded by the NGO Support Programme of the EEA Grants for Bulgaria;
- senior editors and journalists of quality mass media outlets;
- freedom of speech, freedom of internet, privacy and transparency activists and analysts;
- media legal specialists and analysts;
- investigative journalists from Balkan countries, gathered online by the Environmental Watchdogs’ initiative supported by the Green Europe Foundation; and
- representatives of APC member organizations across Europe and APC programme staff.

Facilitator: Dr Pavel P Antonov, Executive Editor and Co-fonder, BlueLink.net

This event is held as part of the APC European Member Meeting hosted by BlueLink.net in Sofia. At the meeting members of APC’s six European member organisations and APC’s team discuss joint strategies for APC's network development, project collaboration, and engagement in policy processes related to internet and communication technologies. The Roundtable discussion is scheduled as an after-event to the EURODIG conference held on June 4 -5, 2015 in Sofia.

For further information: office [at] bluelink [dot] net or +359 888 704 661

BlueLink.net performs the activities as part of the Fourth Power in Young Hands project financed by the NGO Programme in Bulgaria under the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism (www.ngogrants.bg) with co-funding from the Association for Progressive Communications (APC).