Whistle blowing

JIN XU

OUTLINE

WHISTLE BLOWING

Whistle blowing usually does ,or attempts so expose an action contrary to accepted standards whether from the legal or ethical points of view.

At first, the name “Whistle blowing “suggests drawing an analogy to a referee , who blows a whistle to stop the game, call attention to an illegal action and assess a penalty.

Background

The phrase “whistle blowing” was first used in 1400s.But the modern use of this phrase became common in the late 1960s..

This term is originated from a referee who whistling during foul at the game. Then the use extended as we are using now.

Knowing how to blow the whistle

It is not easy to be a whistle blower ,because there will be obstacles and retaliation. There also difficulties in convincing the public to believe you. To be a wisdom one , you should be very discrete.

“Document everything you do , thoroughly and completely , and keep a log from the day you begin , listing the moves you make and all the people you contact . I did and that is why I survived. ” --------Frank Camps , engineer in the Ford Pinto incident

Stages of whistle blowing

Famous cases

Famous cases of whistle-blowing such as the case of shuttle Challenger and the Watergate fame make this term “whistle blowing” more familiar to people.

It is only since the space shuttle Challenger tragedy that more attention has been addressed by the media and various professional organizations to the issues and problems associated with whistle-blowing.

Famous cases

W.Mark Felt, known as “Deep Throat” in the “Watergate fame”, told the journalists the scandals happening in the White House.

Roger Boisjoly ,exposed the truth about the disastrous decision about the space shuttle Challenger to the public.

A Ernest Fitzgerald ,worked as a U.S. government employee who devoted to fight against fraud, waste and abuse within the department.

What to blow?

Kinds of actions which are exposed range from personal desire to political corruption , from disputes with neighbors to scandals in a famous organization.

Common examples of whistle blowing are when an employee decides that the company is making an unsafe product , or that tax money is being wasted in some fraudulent or flagrant manner.

Stakeholders

A Whistle blower

is the main stakeholder in the whistle blowing activity.

is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities (misconduct) occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company.

I think speaking out is one hope for the future . If people care about their jobs and their dignity and their country , they may have to speak out. -------A.Grace Pierce ,researcher at Ortho Pharmaceutical in drug-safety incident

On Whom the Whistle is Blown

WHISTLE BLOWERS WITH Digital Media

We are now living in an era where our life is affiliated with digital media .

The power of digital media makes more people become whistle blowers because of the characteristics of diversity and advance.

Digital media make whistle-blowing easily and effectively.

Dilemma : with the help of digital media, whistle blowers can expose information in anonymity, but at the same time, in the digital media world, privacy seems very hard to keep.

Whistle blowing with Anonymity

Whistle blowers need to think about if anonymity can be assured when they are conducting the whistle-blowing action.

Without anonymity , whistle blowers will be faced with punishment or revenge.

Whistle blowing becomes much more easily with the help of power of media.

On the other hand , media also make whistle blowers easily exposed.

Privacy Online

When “online” becomes the default setting for everybody in this modern society, privacy seems not simple situation in the world of Internet.

Privacy is in a grey area. We are living in a semi-transparent world. Our notion of privacy becomes obscure.

Whistle blowers also have difficulties in hiding their private information which they don’t want to be in exposed such as their identities.

To blow or not to blow

There are many reasons why somebody should blow the whistle or not.

Most of these reasons are related to ethical and social issues.

“We must guard against confusing the principle of morality with the motive to morality. The first is the norm , the second is the incentive.”------Immanuel Kant ,Critique of Pure Reason

Ethical issues

As we can see , Whistle blowing is a kind of action which is normally connected to specific group ,organization and departments of governments . Hence, whistle-blowing is a controversial topic in which many aspects will be involved such as social , ethical, political and personal issues.

Concerned with ethical issues involved in whistle blowing, whistle blower was a rather controversial label in history.

Righteousness

Each person may claim a “fully adequate” number of basic rights and liberties, so long as these claims are consistent with everyone else having a claim to the same rights and liberties.

Whistle blowing is always labeled with honor of promoting justice.

Righteousness is the intention of most whistle blowers who care about interests of other people.

Loyalty

Whistleblower could be negative label sometimes because it is related to the loyalty.

Sometimes whistle blowers are members of the governments ,organizations or companies. Most of them feel some degree of loyalty to their organization.

Betrayal

Whistle blowing means betrayal in some cases.

Betray your commitment to your party and your profession .

Betray your team and your colleagues.

Betray best friends and family sometimes.

Right or wrong

It is hard to justify whistle blowing just from the action it self.

There are many elements which can be taken as standards for judgement .

Among those elements , I think purposes and consequences are the most important.

Motivations

Motivations of whistle blowing are various.

Positive reasons: concern for integrity ,honesty ,safety ,social stability ,environment and so on.

Negative reasons : spitefulness ,self-interest ,financial gain, revenge and so on.

Motivations

In the kantianism theory, it is not the outcomes that decides if this action is wrong or right ,it is the motivation of the action matters. If the motivation can be classified into a universalized maxim , then this action may be right.

Whistle blowing is an action that someone tells the illegal or misconduct activities occurring in governments ,organizations or companies to certain authorities or public. Generally, the maxim in this action is doing good to the public and promote the justice in the society. This is a universalized rule which can be seen as “perfect duty”.

Conflicts

Nevertheless, among all the rules that we have accepted as ethics , there are some conflicts existing in these rules.

Sometimes whistle blowers are members of the governments ,organizations or companies. Whistle blowing breaks the rule of loyalty.

The conflicts between loyalty rule and justice rule.

Outcomes

Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism ,which says that the moral worth of an action is determined by its usefulness in maximizing utility and minimizing negative utility.

Consequences is a very important standard for deciding if the action is right or wrong.

What extent of happiness does whistle blowing bring as a consequence?

Right or wrong

In the rule utilitarianism theory, the correctness of a rule is determined by the amount of good it brings when followed. When whistle blowing follows the rule of defending justice ,it brings the maximum of happiness .

Act utilitarianism is a idea that the right action is the one which produce the greatest amount of happiness or pleasure for the greatest number of beings. When whistle blowing is an action which tries to defend majority of people’s benefits ,it will be full of rightness.

Social Contract

Social contract raised the idea that individuals unite into a society by a process of mutual consent， agree to abide by certain rules and to accept duties to protect one another from violence ,fraud or negligence.

We implicitly accept a social contract to bind with the society.

Whistle blowing is a form of exemplification of social contract.

Right or wrong

Whistle blowing is a negative right to those who are exposed doing misconduct.

Whistle blowing is a positive right for whistle blowers themselves.

Whistle blowing is also a limited rule that have to abide ethical rules and laws.

The risks that whistle blowers undertake and the contribution they make bring forward the need for legal protection.

Legal protection for whistle blowers vary from country to country.

Even with laws’ support, potential whistle blowers still contemplate a difficult path.

Legal Protection

Legal Protection

In the U.S. the first law adopted specifically to protect whistleblowers was the 1863 False Claims Act ,which try to combat fraud by suppliers of the government during the Civil War .

Fraud and cover-up is typical scenario of whistle-blowing .The False Claims Act was created to discourage fraud by encouraging people reporting it.

The primary protection law is the Federal Whistle Blower Protection Act of 1989.

Legal protection

In UK, the Public Interest Disclosure Act provides protection for citizens who disclose information to expose malpractice and similar matters.

As we can see there are many laws existing for the whistle blowing action , and there are also laws for protecting the confidential information from leaking.

Laws for both sides

The complicated situation exists because there are adequate laws for both parties. In what degree, the action can be whistle blown legally? And in what degree, leaking the information is immorally and illegally?

Laws for encouraging

whistle blowing

Laws for secrets protection

Myth and Truth

When whistle blowing is legitimized , abuse of using it happens.

Some people may do it for self-interests :retaliation, blackmail, a way for beating opponents.

When it is abused, there will be very complicated to find out the truth.

Who is the real bad guy?

What will you do

If you are working in a company or a employee in the government , you find some misconduct going on such as fraud or producing harmful products to the public,what will you do?

References

Leon W.Zelby ,Whistle-Blowing----- “Somebody Has to Take a Stand”

R.M Anderson , Divided loyalties : Whistle Blowing at Bart , Purdue Research Foundation

Kevin W.Bowyer ,Goodearl and Aldred Versus Hughes Aircraft: A Whistle-blowing Case Study

Richard House ,Anneliese Watt ,Julia M.Williams , teaching Enron : The Rhetoric and Ethics of Whistle-Blowing

K.Bowyer ,Ethics and Computing ,living responsibly in a Computerized World

Charles Ess ,Digital Media Ethics