A worrying precedent in Belgium: Parliament incriminates a whistleblower
Revocation proceedings are under way within the Belgian Parliament against a whistleblower at the APD (Data Protection Authority, the official body that protects citizens’ rights), one of our fellow journalists reports in Le Soir [1].
Co-director at the APD, Charlotte Dereppe alerted the public to conflicts of interest within the APD with other government institutions. Over the past two years, Charlotte Dereppe, together with her colleague who resigned, former director Alexandra Jaspar, have denounced a series of infringements that undermine the APD’s independence and citizens’ privacy. On its website [2], the APD is moreover concerned about the new bill that threatens its functioning
Through Le Soir, Charlotte Dereppe and Alexandra Jaspar describe the many pressures (harassment, threats, intimidation, etc.) they are subjected to by MPs, whereas they should on the contrary be protected by Parliament, which mandated them.
In short, whistleblower Charlotte Dereppe apparently did her job too well…
Until a recent cosmetic tidying-up of its legislation, Belgium was, rightly so, under threat of a referral to the Court of Justice of the European Union for its failings in complying with the GDPR.
By Thérèse Leblanc, journalist for BAM!
[1] https://www.lesoir.be/438555/article/2022-04-27/une-lanceuse-dalerte-de-lapd-jugee-au-parlement-une-premiere-inquietante
[2] https://www.autoriteprotectiondonnees.be/citoyen/le-nouveau-projet-de-loi-apd-menace-lindependance-et-le-fonctionnement-de-lautorite
Photo source:
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, Image cropped from the original image by DES Daughter on flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
