Whistleblowing

Whistleblowers should be celebrated not persecuted

The term “whistleblower” brings to mind a dishevelled Al Pacino as Frank Serpico, a cop, who though ostracised and beaten up by his colleagues, exposed corruption in the New York Police Department in the 1970s.

In a recent interview, the real Serpico told the New York Times: “No matter how big or how much corruption there is, it’s never greater than the individual or the might of doing the right thing.”Unfortunately, doing the right thing still comes at a price.

The debate over Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning in the US is ongoing - and in Europe, this week, there is a milestone court decision coming up.

Though Antoine Deltour, a former PriceWaterhouseCoopers employee, his former colleague Raphael Halet and Edouard Perrin, a journalist, haven’t faced a bullet like Serpico, they could face jail time for exposing tax avoidance at multinational companies in the LuxLeaks scandal.

Without sufficient legal protections and reliable avenues to report wrongdoing, employees throughout Europe face being fired, demoted or harassed if they expose corruption and other crimes.