Whistleblowers: Alone vs the System

Great classroom resource, here. Whistleblowing is a great ethics topic: whistleblowers (in the best cases, at least) bring serious wrongdoing to light. But there’s always an ethical “tension” related to the fact that whistleblowing always involves violating trust — however well justified such violation may be. Whistleblowering also involves substantial risk to the individual, to the extent that it essentially constitutes a kind of heroism. Is this too much to ask? And how often is it effective? Those are questions to consider while you watch the entire 28-minute documentary at the link below: >>>

LINK: Whistleblowers – Alone against the system (a documentary by Carmen Meyer and Holger Ernst for Deutsche Welle)

Swiss auditor Rudolf Elmer was arrested after releasing company documents to support his allegations that the bank he worked for had engaged in tax evasion. Stéphanie Gibaud, who worked for UBS in Paris, was harassed and eventually fired after she made similar allegations about her company. Germany’s Swen Ennullat also paid a heavy price: he was fired from two different jobs, one after another, for blowing the whistle on his superiors…..

What do you think?

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