Are we losing our relationship with truth & honesty? I'm not talking about "post truth politics" where there is an abundance and over influence of misleading or false political claims. I'm not talking about "fake news", news or stories on the internet that are not true - Disinformation - False information that's created and shared to deliberately cause harm.
I'm talking about the seeming trend to close our eyes to things that we see or experience that are wrong & need to be addressed. The recent dreadful Letby & Malkinson cases are a truly disturbing picture of obviously wrong events that are drawn to the attention of bodies that can & should take action & don't. Whistleblowing should detect and prevent corruption and other malpractice.
The CEO & Medical Director were warned about the concerns of the Consultants in the Letby case in 2015. Whistleblowing about such a serious matter takes guts. But the bosses questioned the integrity of doctors who raised concerns. One senior paedriatrician was made to apologise to Letby & continue to work with her.
https://www.hsj.co.uk/countess-of-chester-hospital-nhs-foundation-trust/revealed-how-trust-execs-resisted-concerns-over-letby/7035170.article
The rape Malkinson was convicted of took place in 2003. he was convicted in 2004. He appealed in 2006. He applied to the Criminal Cases Review Board in 2009 because new DNA had been found - It's refused in 2012. In 2018 there is a fresh application - refused in 2020. In 2021 another application is made which goes to the appeal court & Malkinsons conviction is overturned.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/aug/15/dna-and-injustice-a-timeline-of-the-andrew-malkinson-case
As a whistleblower you are protected by law. You should not be treated unfairly or lose your job because you 'blow the whistle'. However the reality is that the consequences of whistleblowing often comes at a high price. Whistleblowers risk their career, their livelihood and sometimes their personal safety to expose wrongdoing that threatens the public interest. They may be fired, sued, blacklisted, arrested, threatened or, in extreme cases, assaulted or killed.
There are numerous examples of whistleblowers who have suffered because they fought to expose wrongdoing. Unless we make speaking out fair & easy people will be deterred because they fear the consequences, believe nothing will be done or aren't sure who to report to.
https://www.transparency.org/en/our-priorities/whistleblowing
Unfortunately there are all to many examples where whistleblowing & speaking out has made unbelievable demands on the whistleblower. The effective functioning of society demands that we change the culture & make people truly accountable.
Images of Whistleblowers
No comments:
Post a Comment