The Perugia Principles: new guidelines for journalists working with whistleblowers

This session will represent the global industry launch of The Perugia Principles – a new set of guidelines for journalists working with whistleblowers in the digital context published in English, Spanish, Greek, German and Russian. These guidelines were developed collaboratively with an international panel of investigative journalists and academics, and they take their name from the International Journalism Festival held annually in Perugia.

During the 2018 festival, lead author Julie Posetti convened and facilitated a ‘round table’ discussion involving international experts working in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the UK, the Middle East, Africa, the US and Asia to test and focus the original 20 draft principles.

The final 12 principles contained in the handbook, published in early 2019, were developed in consultation with Blueprint for Free Speech, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) at the University of Oxford, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), the World Editors Forum within The World Association of Newspaper and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and The Signals Network.

This panel will bring together the lead authors with three internationally acclaimed investigative reporters who will debate the Perugia Principles and their value to contemporary journalism.