Whistleblowing

I have written about your responsibility for your ideas, even if you develop and realize them for others (e.g., as a industry researcher). Even if it is no longer your project, you are still responsible for what is done with it, especially if the public is mislead or risks are played down or concealed for profit reasons.

Sometimes it seems that whistleblowing is the only chance one has of informing the public and letting people who are not “touchable” lead a charge that you yourself could not do. As said by Peter Mullan, the director of “The Magdalene Sisters” [was linked to the site where the interview was published, but the site is now defunct] on an article about the lack of organized resistance in Bosnian rape camps:

“One woman said, ‘I’d have given them my daughter rather than have them rape me again.’ There’s something moving about that kind of honesty, because we’d like to believe that people rise up and fight this kind of thing, but oppression is much more sophisticated than that. Because in making people act as isolated individuals, you win every time. The greatest threat to the world is a collective. But if you break it down into individuals, you can smash them to smithereens.”

sometimes you need more than one person and telling others about it is the first step.
Looking into ways to blow the whistle anonymously (out of general curiosity), I stumbled over a nice Wikileaks video where the purpose of Wikileaks is explained (the presentation style is … taxing, but you get a good first impression, Wikipedia is also helpful). There is also another (newer) presentation which is quite interesting (first part of seven, go to YouTube for the rest or use the related videos links if the next part is displayed):

Looking at the website itself, it seems that Wikileaks is in urgent need for money — they provide only a few documents at the moment and closed their archive. However, you can still submit documents and there are some mirrors available (look at the Wikipedia entry for more).

But it appears that the devil is — as usual — in the details. The blog http://wikileak.org (without the s) has some critical entries on wikileakS.org, including one about a possible security risk made by wikileaks (by having linked to a graphic on another website — essentially, if you visit wikileaks.org, other people get your IP address and can identify you).

Given this information, it seems that Whistleblowing will still be risky and taxing in the present and future. However, the blog (http://wikileak.org) has some interesting links with more information, including a very interesting blog entry with Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers. If I ever get in a situation where I think that anonymous whistle blowing would be my only chance, I would probably start there — although I hope that I never have to make this experience.