Whistleblowers
What do you call a person who violates trust, breaks their contractual obligations, and sometimes compromises national secrets to become a hero? Obviously a whistleblower since that's the title of this event!
Whistle blowing is risky business. In corporate situations you risk losing your job and destroying your career. In government you risk all that plus the possibility of being charged with treason. Even if you do everything right, you will still see your reputation attacked in the media. And what if you don't do everything right? What if you fail to adequately review and redact documents before releasing them publicly and you put others in danger?
In recent years we've seen a series of high-profile whistleblowers and the consequences that they have faced for their actions: Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Chelsea Manning to name the most famous ones. Did these people make the right choices? How do we weigh the dangers of revealing secrets against the possible public good that they offer? What do we do about whistleblowers?
Excerpt
Whistle blowing is risky business. In corporate situations you risk losing your job and destroying your career. In government you risk all that plus the possibility of being charged with treason. Even if you do everything right, you will still see your reputation attacked in the media. How do we weigh the dangers of revealing secrets against the possible public good that they offer?
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