Overarmed or underdressed? whistleblowers between anti-discrimination law and freedom of expression

Abstract

Does retaliation against a whistleblower qualify as discrimination or an infringement of freedom of expression? In France, whistleblowing legislation has built whistleblower protection on the model of discrimination. The transposition of the European Directive 2019/1937 of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of EU law, reinforced by domestic case law, shifts the balance towards freedom of expression. Standing at the crossroads of discrimination and freedom of expression, the protection of whistleblowers is in urgent need of conceptual clarification, which this article seeks to provide. To this end, the article proposes to consider the status of whistleblower as a layered legal regime, in addition to an underlying legal status such as employee, civil servant, journalist or other. The articulation between discrimination and freedom of expression thereby gains a strategic dimension that is essential to it. This understanding helps to clarify how discrimination law and freedom of expression can benefit whistleblowers and thus strengthen rather than weaken their protection.