Purpose of the Ellsberg Whistleblower Award is also to foster networking. On the day of our award ceremony 2026, we therefore hosted in cooperation with Reporter ohne Grenzen an expert exchange on the cooperation between journalists, whistleblowers and NGOs:

Cooperation between investigative journalists and whistleblowers, moderated by Michael Sontheimer, journalist, author and member of the Board of the taz Panter Foundation

Whistleblowing support structures and investigative journalism, moderated by Thomas Kastning, project manager Ellsberg Award

Input givers in the room included:

• Annegret Falter, Chair of Whistleblower Netzwerk – WBN, with a Welcome and overview of existing whistleblower support structures, and Kosmas Zittel, Managing Director of WBN, on the role of a national whistleblower support organization in non‑public cases,
• Sven Becker, investigative journalist at DER SPIEGEL magazine, on his multiple experiences with whistleblowers,
• Alexander von Bismarck, Executive Director at the Environmental Investigation Agency, on the case of Ecopetrol and the Iguana Papers,
• Henri Thulliez, Director of Strategy of Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa – PPLAAF, on the work of an international whistleblower support organization and its relationship with journalists.

Together with journalists and researchers from +972, Wau Holland Foundation, Disruption Network Lab, ARIJ – Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalists, The Signals Network, AIWI – AI Whistleblower Initiative, Deutsche Umwelthilfe, Transparency International, AllRise, WWF, Greenpeace, Heinrich-Böll-Foundation, kolko – Menschenrechte für Kolumbien, DIE ZEIT, Reva and David Logan Foundation, taz, we discussed e.g.:

• When looking for journalists / media outlets, whistleblowers look for experts in their field
• Never make promises to a whistleblower that cannot be kept
• Psychological follow-up support for whistleblowers can be an important aspect that journalists usually are not able to provide
• A whistleblower support fund is seen as a potentially powerful tool
• There are arguments in favor of involving whistleblower support organizations as early as possible
• Environmental NGOs want to understand why whistleblowers choose specific individuals or organizations to approach
• Everybody has the necessity to reach out to whistleblowers that are difficult to reach (e.g. an environmental NGO to forestry workers in Brazil or a Russian journalist in exile to whistleblowers in her home country), while at the same time not causing harm to them
• There is a need for technical training on data security – especially for those handling cases involving state actors