Submission models

There are different ways to organise anonymous dropboxes. Real life examples distribute reports to single media organisations and multiple media organisations. Some route disclosures to NGOs, or to in-house compliance officers.

EAT recognises this diversity and partner organisations can choose which of three different submission models they wish to use.

Model A:
A simple pass-through, with no partner involvement

In model A, the dropbox is associated with a public or private sector entity and whistleblowers are encouraged to submit reports relating to that beneficiary entity. The dropbox itself will be operated by Hermes, but the beneficiary entity will have access to particular administrative functions. Submitted disclosures are sent to an officer of the beneficiary organisation. Certain kinds of metadata will be recorded by Hermes and analysed by Blueprint for Free Speech.

Model B:
Pass-through with partner involvement

In model B, the whistleblower is given a choice about whether they would like to submit their report to the beneficiary, sending a notification only to the responsible at beneficiary ends, or to both the beneficiary responsible and the EAT partner responsible. Some EAT partners will allow the reporting person to send the data also to them, if the reporting person decides to make a submission to the beneficiary and the NGO. Certain kinds of metadata will be recorded by Hermes and analysed by Blueprint for Free Speech.

In this model, the content of the report will only be accessible to a related office of the beneficiary. The EAT partner responsible will only receive a notification informing that a report had been made, without access to the content.

Model C:
Pass-through with partner and media partner in parallel

In model C, the beneficiaries will be able to adopt model A or B. However, EAT project will provide an external and parallel channel associated with a media organization. The dropbox itself will be operated by Hermes, but the media organisation will have access to particular administrative functions. Submitted disclosures are sent to a journalist working for the media organisation. Certain kinds of metadata will be recorded by Hermes and analysed by Blueprint for Free Speech.

In this model, the content of the report will only be accessible to the related office of the beneficiary. The partner of the country will only receive a notification informing that a report had been made, without any content.

The media, chosen in principle by the partner, will also only receive a notification.