Blueprint for Free Speech has launched an international campaign seeking to secure a Presidential pardon for imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher and journalist Julian Assange.

British Judge Vanessa Baraitser, who turned down a United States request to extradite jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face espionage charges for revealing state secrets, denied him bail at the January 6 hearing, saying he was a flight risk.

A British judge has rejected the request to have jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange extradited to the US, where he was to face espionage charges for revealing the killing of civilians and journalists in Iraq by American forces.

An Italian doctor for the United Nations whose withdrawn report for the World Health Organization warned in May about political risks of people dying from COVID-19 now faces retaliation as a whistleblower.

The German Justice Ministry has finalized a first draft for a comprehensive national whistleblower protection law. The draft comes in response to the obligation of all EU Member States to introduce legislation in compliance with last year‘s EU whistleblowing Directive.

At least 387 journalists and media workers were jailed worldwide as of December 1 this year, with 130 arrested for reporting on the COVID-19 crisis. The figures were compiled by the German office of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and announced in its annual report.

The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) said Greece's New Democracy government failed to strengthen anti-corruption laws diluted by the former ruling SYRIZA. The Radical Left group had introduced softer sanctions on bribery involving public officials.

Some 19 months after journalist Lyra McKee was killed with a shot in the head while covering a protest involving dissident Republicans in Londonderry, other reporters in Northern Ireland are now facing threats directed against them.

Fearing for her safety, a Russian woman who blew the whistle on corruption in Malta and was a key source for murdered investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia is seeking asylum in Greece, where she lives with her husband.

He wants whistleblowers Julian Assange and Edward Snowden hauled in and prosecuted for revealing classified documents, but US President Donald Trump should pardon them instead, said Hawaiian Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat who ran for her party's nomination.

After dropping plans to put a limit on awards to whistleblowers, the US' Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it paid out a record of more than $175 million through Sept. 30 to 39 people who revealed wrongdoing.

Some 26 journalists covering more than three months of protests against the reelection of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko have been jailed, the toll mounting even as he continues to consolidate power.