WK 4: Panama Papers & Whistle-blowing

Earlier this year, the government was considering legislation which would see financial reward provided to those who come forward and expose corruption in large corporate companies (Bagshaw, 2017). On the back of the whistle-blowers helping expose 'worker exploitation at 7-Eleven' and 'widespread tax evasion' and 'systemic financial misconduct at the NSW RSL' (Bagshaw, 2017), the legislation proposes corporations be forced to compensate the whistle-blowers salaries and potential promotion bonuses. Government rewards could also be included for certain cases (Bagshaw, 2017).

Such a system, would help to alleviate the potential consequences whistle-blowers suffer after revealing information including: loss of family and friends, employment scrutiny or termination, inability to attain further employment, reputation suffering etc. (Dreyfus et al, 2013). It would be interesting to see the effect of such a system on the amount of leaks and whistle-blower’s motivations, which are generally headlined by: a genuine desire to stop a wrongdoing, and retribution.

The consequences for whistle-blowers aren't great. Image: Elaine Byrne 

Dreyfus et al (2013, p. 49) suggest that ‘Leaks are the journalist’s lifeblood’, while later discussing how journalist’s leaks have dried up. If financial reward is provide to whistle-blowers through legislation expected to be debated later this year, will there be a sudden and steep increase in the amount of people contacting journalists? Or will there be a decrease of people willingly to provide general leaks in the hope of holding out for providing information that may lead to a financial reward? The step should not be taken lightly by the government, although it seems the media (Bagshaw, 2017) is all for it.

Of most significance to pre-practicing journalists is the characteristics of a media outlet which a whistle-blower may value, and the way a whistle-blower relationship should be treated. A journalist needs to understand the motivations of a whistle-blower and the potential strengths to develop a relationship. Further, a journalist needs to understand how to best utilise that relationship given the ability to trace digital communication and the best way to ensure protection for both the whistle-blower and themselves, should the matter be one that could go before the court.

An interesting video looking at the historical influence of whistle-blowers. 

References

Bagshaw, E. (2017, June 23). Australian whistleblowers could get access to bounties worth millions. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australian-whistleblowers-could-get-access-to-bounties-worth-millions-20170622-gwwbi3.html

Dreyfus, S., Lederman, R., Brown, A. J., Milton, S., Miceli, M. P., Bosua, R., … Schanzle, J. (2013). Human sources: Journalists and whistle-blower. In S. Tanner & N. Richardson (Eds.), Journalism research and investigation in a digital world. (pp. 88-100). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.