What is a whistle-blower?

Hi, I’m Kraig Martin, and I do employment law here in the firm.

What is a whistle-blower?

A whistle-blower is a person who goes to either the media or to a person in the company wo can do something about it, and complains about a violation of law, or unethical practice, in an effort to make it stop. The whistle-blower then gets a claim if the whistle-blower’s terminated for blowing the whistle.

What should someone do if they want to blow the whistle?

You have to blow the whistle to the right people. Blowing the whistle to a peer is not blowing the whistle, it has to be blowing the whistle to somebody in the position to react to the information you provide. So, knowing who you’re blowing the whistle to, knowing what you’re blowing the whistle about is important too. If you blow the whistle about being treated unfairly, that’s probably not whistle-blowing. It has to be a complaint about a violation of a state or federal statute or constitution, or illegal conduct before it’s really whistle-blowing. Complaining that your boss is mean to you wouldn’t be whistle-blowing. And finally, you want to make sure you’ve made a record of the whistle-blowing because too many cases become he said-she said. So yes, whistle-blowing is important if done right, and probably the best thing to do before you blow the whistle is talk to a lawyer who knows about it.

 

Protecting food, empowering whistle-blowers

It used to be easy to tell if your food had integrity. You ate something you grew, hunted or gathered. And you knew exactly where it came from. But over time, we started becoming more disconnected from the source of our food. In the modern world, it’s not possible for each of us to monitor the integrity of the entire food system. So how do we keep the system honest when there’s so much of it that we just can’t see? We’d like to think that the corporations and lawmakers that are supposed to keep our food safe have our best interest in mind; but the reality is there’s much they prefer stay hidden from view: practices that endanger the health and welfare of animals, mistreat of food workers, destroy the environment, and threaten the safety of the food we eat. Luckily, there are eyes and ears along the way that care. Those who speak out and tell us the truth, even when threatened and intimidated. It takes a community of whistle-blowers, truth-tellers and advocates to safeguard our food. And the government accountability project supports that community through the food integrity campaign. Help us protect and empower the people who protect our food’s integrity.

Definition of 'Whistleblower'

Definition: A whistleblower is a person, who could be an employee of a company, or a government agency, disclosing information to the public or some higher authority about any wrongdoing, which could be in the form of fraud, corruption, etc.

Description: A whistleblower is a person who comes forward and shares his/her knowledge on any wrongdoing which he/she thinks is happening in the whole organisation or in a specific department. A whistleblower could be an employee, contractor, or a supplier who becomes aware of any illegal activities.

To protect whistleblowers from losing their job or getting mistreated there are specific laws. Most companies have a separate policy which clearly states how to report such an incident.

A whistleblower can file a lawsuit or register a complaint with higher authorities which will trigger a criminal investigation against the company or any individual department.

There are two types of whistleblowers: internal and external. Internal whistleblowers are those who report the misconduct, fraud, or indiscipline to senior officers of the organisation such as Head Human Resource or CEO.

External whistleblowing is a term used when whistleblowers report the wrongdoings to people outside the organisation such as the media, higher government officials, or police.

The crime or wrongdoing could be in the form of fraud, deceiving employees, corruptions, or any other act which misleads people. The Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2011 lays down the complete framework to investigate alleged cases of wrongdoing.

There is one name which pops up in history whenever we talk about 'whistleblowers' and that is Edward Joseph Snowden. He was a former CIA employee who leaked classified and restricted information to the public from the United States National Security Agency in 2013.

Taken from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/whistleblower

 

What is a whistle in French? Un sifflet

What is a whistleblower in French? Un lanceur d’alertes

What does a whistleblower do? A whistleblower warns other people about what is wrong, dangerous, illegal. He / she reveals or denounces facts.

How does a whistleblower reveal things? He/she can share what he knows on social media or the internet. He/she can also decide to file a suit or register a complaint so that there is an investigation.

Any famous whistleblower? Edward Joseph Snowden.

Who was he and what did he do? He was a CIA employee and he leaked classified and restricted information.

 

 

Does social media have the power to change the world?

Watch the video as many times as you want, make pauses if necessary and discover the power of social media.

 

1-What words are underlined in the questions? Why? What does it focus on then?

SOCIAL MEDIA and POWER are underlined to show they are the keywords of the question. It then focusses on the word WORLD and the world / earth is shown to us.

2-What first figure is given? How many people use social media in the world?

26% of the world’s population is using social media.

3-What examples are given. Fill the chart.

Number…	Social media…	Where…
41.2 million people	Twitter	Brazil
90 million people	Facebook	India
3.6 million people	Facebook	Kenya
6.5 million people	Mxit (instant messaging app)	South Africa
600 million people	Weibo	China
46 million	Vkontakte	Russia

4-What is the conclusion after such figures?

SOCIAL MEDIA has helped to create a digital global village.

5-What other social media are presented? What are they associated to?

Facebook => enabling democracy and mobilizing activism

Wikipedia => increasing access to information and improving education

WikiLeaks => encouraging transparency and accountability

Any social media => influencing the media through citizen journalism

6-How has social media helped social change? List the countries and the changes that were brought about.

In Jamaica => health workers distribute information about HIV via social media.

In Mexico => Citizens are using social media to report information about drug wars and cartels.

In India => There is a website (I paid a bribe) for reporting acts of corruption via social media channels.

In Syria => a fundraising video made by SAVE THE CHILDREN was viewed by over 30 million people.

Everywhere in the world => The USHAHIDI platform uses social media to locate people in the aftermath of natural disasters or conflict

examples of a tsunami in Japan, a typhoon in the Philippines, elections in Kenya, an earthquake in Hawaii)

7-What other power is mentioned about social media?

Social media can help create revolutions (to topple governments around the world)

8-Give some examples of the hashtags which have become symbols of such revolutions.

#arabspring / #egypt / #occupywallstreet, etc… 

9-About censorship, inequality and digital divide: how is it symbolized?

The word censorship is blurred to show that it is unreadable.

The letters of word inequality are all separated to show differences between people.

The words in “digital divide” are separated to show the separation it creates.

10-What figure is given to prove that censorship exists?

In 2011, the internet was censored in more than 40 different countries, affecting over a half-billion users.

11-What examples of censorship are mentioned? Fill the chart with the information.

 

Where…	Example of censorship
China	Words are censored on Weibo: “sex”, “18+”, “Muslim”, “Marijuana”, “conflict”.
Uganda	A social media monitoring centre was created by the government
Vietnam	anyone who criticizes the government on social media has to pay a $5000 fine.
Turkey	YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are all banned. the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “Social media are the worst menace to society”.

12-What global figures are given ?

Three-fifth (3/5^th) of the population remains unconnected, that is to say 4.4 million people. They cannot send or receive emails, connect via social media, chat on Skype with friends and family, or watch humorous videos of cats.

13-What about Europe? Africa?

75% of the population are online in Europe.

16% of the population are online in Africa.

14-How do unconnected people react to not being connected?

They think Internet is not useful / is useless to their lives because lack of relevance, costs, infrastructure, local language content, skills training and illiteracy.

15-What is changing though?

Access to the internet and social media is changing rapidly. For example, in china, there were 17.6 million mobile netizens in 2008 and it increased to 464 million mobile netizens in 2013.

16-What is a “netizen”? Give a definition.

A netizen is a citizen of the net: net + citizen = an internet user.

17-What comparison is brought forward? What does it show?

There are now more mobile phones in the world than toothbrushes… It shows that people are more and more concerned about being connected… and maybe that less and less people are concerned about their health…

18-How will new technologies help in the future?  

They will help the diffusion of the internet (Solar power laptops, Google Loon, $50 smartphones, the BRCK)

19-What final question is raised?

“Who controls the power of social media????”