Whistleblower

A whistleblower is an employee, former employee, or member of an organization who reports misconduct to people or entities that have the power to take corrective action. Generally the misconduct is a violation of law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest -- fraud, health, safety violations, and corruption are just a few examples. For instance, Jeffrey Wigand is a well-known whistleblower in the United States for his role in the Big Tobacco scandal, revealing that executives of the companies knew that cigarettes were addictive and that they added other carcinogenic ingredients to the cigarettes. Whistleblowers are most often employees of businesses, but are also commonly employees of government agencies.

Related Topics:
Employee - Law - Public interest - Fraud - Corruption - Jeffrey Wigand - United States - Big Tobacco - Scandal - Cigarette - Carcinogenic - Business - Government agencies

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Contrary to popular belief, not only the most severe cases of corporate or governmental misconduct that results in substantial public harm precipitate a whistleblowing. While these instances are the most newsworthy and the type most portrayed in popular culture, any kind of misconduct may initiate the whistleblowing process and the vast majority of cases are based on relatively minor misconduct. The most common type of whistleblowers are internal whistleblowers, who are whistleblowers that report misconduct to another employee or superior within the company or agency of their work. Contrasting this, external whistleblowers report misconduct to outside persons or entities. In these cases, depending on the severity and nature of the wrong-doing, whistleblowers will usually report the misconduct to lawyers, the media, law enforcement or watchdog agencies, or to other local, state, or federal agencies. If the disclosure is specifically prohibited by law or is specifically required by executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense the reporting by a whistleblower might constitute treason.

Related Topics:
Popular culture - Lawyer - Media - Law enforcement - Watchdog agencies - Executive order - National defense - Treason

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Role-prescribed whistleblowing, for example whistleblowing done by quality control personnel or internal auditors, does not necessarily constitute whistleblowing in the traditional sense, chiefly because their reporting of misconduct is mandated.

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