Monitoring of the media coverage of the new Law on the protection of persons reporting or publicly disclosing information on breaches (the “Whistleblowing Law”) which transposes the requirements of Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law – short analyses of the media coverage and the way the Bulgarian citizens are being informed on the issue

7 March 2023 News

Monitoring of the media coverage of the new Law on the protection of persons reporting or publicly disclosing information on breaches (the “Whistleblowing Law”) which transposes the requirements of Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law – short analyses of the media coverage and the way the Bulgarian citizens are being informed on the issue

Bulgaria delayed the transposition of the EU Directive of Whistleblower protection in the national legislation and missed the deadline – of 17 December 2021. The Law on protection of persons reporting or publicly disclosing information on breaches (the “Whistleblowing Law”) was adopted on 27 January 2023. This adoption was preceded by back-and-forth steps of all political parties in the national Parliament.

The law was promulgated in the State Gazette, Issue No. 11 of February 2, 2023 and enters into force on May 4, 2023 for all obligated persons, with the exception of the provisions establishing obligations for private sector employers who have between 50 and 249 workers or employees, which will apply from 17 December 2023.

In October 2022 two similar projects have been submitted – one from the Council of Ministers and the second one from the Democratic Bulgaria party. In November 2022 the projects found support in the legal parliamentary committees. However, on December 14 four parties GERB, DPS, BSP, and Vazrazhdane finally voted “against”.

GERB and BSP argued during the debate about the imperfection of the texts. Vazrazhdane simply declared the lawas ‘a law for the administration of noses (slanderers)’.

On January 12 2023, GERB submitted its own text. It was almost identical to the rejected draft of the Council of Ministers a month earlier. The key difference to previous proposals is the body designated to receive and process external reports. The new project defines this will be the Commission for Personal Data Protection. This project was put on the fast track and was finally adopted on January 27, 2023.

The media coverage of the project was most visible on 20 January 2023 when the law was voted in the Judicial Commission of the Parliament and on 27 January 2023 when the Parliament voted on the law.

Media published short news pieces about the process of adoption of the law. Most of the news pieces attracted a very low readership and motivated no comments at all. The only comment in one of the publications was irrelevant to the topic.

The monitoring covers the period October 2022 – February 2023. The general impression is that the coverage of the Directive is moderate, and goes into five main segments:

1. Specialized coverage – mainly on Law offices web pages – 21

2. NGOs web pages – 1

3. General and Specialized Media – 18

4. Workshops and Public Debates Announced – 7

5. Corporate websites – 2

49 publications are registered for the analyzed period.

ANALYSES IN DETAILS

1. SPECIALIZED LAW OFFICES’ WEB PAGES

The law provoked much larger attention among specialized audiences rather than among general audiences. There were quite a large number of publications in February 2023.

A. Some specialized sites published the law:

https://lex.bg/bg/mobile/ldoc/2137231156

https://praktika.bg/index.php?issue=&page=inner&id=9965

B. Many prominent law offices published explanatory articles:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dimitrov-petrov-%26-co–law-firm_superpower-together-inspiration-activity-6774598834262683648-8Aq_/?originalSubdomain=bg

https://www.pariteni.bg/novini/rabota/zashtita-na-raboteshtite-koito-podavat-signali-245187

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=c6b8a620-6707-42db-9247-ee676db49f57

https://ceelegalmatters.com/bulgaria/22366-bulgaria-finally-transposed-the-whistleblowing-directive

https://cms-lawnow.com/en/ealerts/2023/02/bulgaria-has-officially-transposed-the-whistleblowing-directive

https://www.cpdp.bg/?p=news_view&aid=1955

https://ivlawfirm.com/7242-2/

C. Some law or company offices published larger educational pieces:

https://kpmg.com/bg/en/home/insights/2023/02/new-whistleblowing-law.html

Bulgaria adopts new whistleblowing legislation

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=c6b8a620-6707-42db-9247-ee676db49f57

https://ceelegalmatters.com/bulgaria/22366-bulgaria-finally-transposed-the-whistleblowing-directive

https://cms-lawnow.com/en/ealerts/2023/02/bulgaria-has-officially-transposed-the-whistleblowing-directive

https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/bg/pdf/bg-2023-02-07-bg-ln.pdf

https://www.dpc.bg/bg-insights/whistleblowers-protection-act-adopted

2. NGO WEB PAGES

The interest to the law was very limited also among the NGOs in Bulgaria:

Народното събрание прие закона за защита на лицата, подаващи сигнали за нарушения

3. GENERAL MEDIA

The publications in the day when the law was adopted also attracted an extremely low readership. An editor of one of the leading national media commented to Media Development Center for thus report that they usually do “not publish news pieces like this because that they rarely attract readers’ interest”. A few media stressed on the fact that the law was adopted “in the middle of the night” – a presumption that the act is only to parry the EU blow of eventual further delay and avoid infringement procedures.

A. The general media published very limited comments on the law generally speaking.

https://www.24chasa.bg/bulgaria/article/13564823

https://news.bg/politics/glasuvaha-zashtita-na-litsata-podavashti-signali-za-koruptsiya.html

https://novini.bg/bylgariya/politika/760938

https://faktor.bg/bg/articles/obshtestvo-zakon-i-red-ns-prie-zakon-za-zashtita-na-litsata-podavashti-signali

https://frognews.bg/novini/deputatite-glasuvaha-usloviiata-zashtita-litsata-podavashti-signali-narusheniia-zakonite.html

https://dariknews.bg/novini/bylgariia/glasuvaha-zashtita-na-licata-podavashti-signali-za-narusheniia-2337501

https://www.24chasa.bg/bulgaria/article/13623382

https://lupa.bg/news/podavashtite-signali-za-narusheniya-pod-zashtita_217893news.html

https://m.offnews.bg/news/Politika_8/Posred-nosht-Pravnata-komisiia-se-popravi-i-prie-othvarlena-ot-zala-r_793803.html

https://www.actualno.com/politics/ns-prie-zakona-na-gerb-za-zashtita-na-podatelite-na-signali-za-korupcija-news_1892853.html

https://news.bg/politics/ns-garantira-zashtita-na-litsata-signalizirali-za-narusheniya.html