Thank you.
Yes, the protection must extend beyond disclosures to supervisors or any specific channels. There's no one formula or recipe that fits all these situations. To make a responsible disclosure you need to do a lot of homework, talk with other potential witnesses, and do research.
Before you start making accusations, you need to give the system a chance to do the right thing, which means making those disclosures to your supervisor and upwards within the chain of command. The general principle is that you should have the freedom of expression to make that disclosure wherever it's necessary in order to make a difference in challenging the abuse of power or other misconduct.
Many of the laws say—