Editing Whistleblowing (section)

===Attitudes toward whistleblowers===
[[File:Mordechai Vanunu 2009.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Mordechai Vanunu]] spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 in solitary confinement.]]

Whistleblowers are seen by some as selfless martyrs for public interest and organizational accountability; others view them as "traitors" or "defectors". Some even accuse them of solely pursuing personal glory and fame, or view their behavior as motivated by greed in [[qui tam]] cases.{{Citation needed|reason=By whom?|date=January 2022}}  Culturally it still has connotations of betrayal, from 'snitching' at one level to 'denunciations' at the other. Speaking out is difficult, especially in a culture where this is not promoted or even actively discouraged.<ref>{{cite web |last=McGeachie |first=SM |date=February 12, 2014 |title=How to make whistleblowing work |url=https://www.goodcorporation.com/goodblog/making-whistleblowing-work-2/ |website=Good Corporation}}</ref> Some academics (such as [[Thomas Faunce]]) feel that whistleblowers should at least be entitled to a [[rebuttable presumption]] that they are attempting to apply ethical principles in the face of obstacles and that whistleblowing would be more respected in [[governance]] systems if it had a firmer academic basis in [[virtue ethics]].<ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1007/BF03351419|pmid = 15688511|title = Developing and teaching the virtue-ethics foundations of healthcare whistle blowing|journal = Monash Bioethics Review|volume = 23|issue = 4|pages = 41–55|year = 2004|last1 = Faunce|first1 = Thomas|ssrn=1408402|s2cid = 1416298}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |pmid = 17970253|year = 2007|last1 = Faunce|first1 = T. A.|title = Whistleblowing and scientific misconduct: Renewing legal and virtue ethics foundations|journal = Medicine and Law|volume = 26|issue = 3|pages = 567–84|last2 = Jefferys|first2 = S.|ssrn=1406286}}</ref>

It is likely that many people do not even consider whistleblowing not only because of fear of retaliation but also because of fear of losing relationships both at and outside work.<ref>Rowe, Mary & Bendersky, Corinne, "Workplace Justice, Zero Tolerance and Zero Barriers: Getting People to Come Forward in Conflict Management Systems," in ''Negotiations and Change, From the Workplace to Society'', Thomas Kochan and Richard Locke (eds), Cornell University Press, 2002. See also "Dealing with&nbsp;— or Reporting&nbsp;— 'Unacceptable' Behavior (With additional thoughts about the 'Bystander Effect')" ©2009Mary Rowe MIT, Linda Wilcox HMS, Howard Gadlin NIH, ''Journal of the International Ombudsman Association'' 2(1), online at [http://www.ombudsassociation.org/publications/journal/ ombudsassociation.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090504071949/http://www.ombudsassociation.org/publications/journal/ |date=4 May 2009 }}</ref>

Persecution of whistleblowers has become a serious issue in many parts of the world:

<blockquote>
Employees in academia, business or government might become aware of serious risks to health and the environment, but internal policies might pose threats of retaliation to those who report these early warnings. Private company employees in particular might be at risk of being fired, demoted, denied raises and so on for bringing environmental risks to the attention of appropriate authorities. Government employees could be at a similar risk for bringing threats to health or the environment to public attention, although perhaps this is less likely.<ref name=late>{{cite web |url=http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/late-lessons-2 |title=Late lessons from early warnings: science, precaution, innovation: Full Report |author=European Environment Agency) |date=January 23, 2013 |page=614 }}</ref>
</blockquote>

There are examples of "early warning scientists" being harassed for bringing inconvenient truths about impending harm to the notice of the public and authorities.<ref>{{cite book |last1=European Environment Agency Report |title=Late lessons from early warnings: science, precaution, innovation |date=23 January 2013 |publisher=European Environment Agency |isbn=978-92-9213-356-6 |page=581 |url=https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/late-lessons-2 |access-date=13 May 2021}}</ref> There have also been cases of young scientists being discouraged from entering controversial scientific fields for fear of [[harassment]].<ref name=late/>

In order to help whistleblowers, private organizations have formed whistleblower [[legal defense fund]]s or support groups. Examples include the [[National Whistleblower Center]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.whistleblowers.org/ |title=whistleblowers.org |publisher=whistleblowers.org |access-date=8 July 2012}}</ref> in the United States and Whistleblowers UK<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wbuk.org/ |title=wbuk.org |publisher=wbuk.org |access-date=30 January 2017}}</ref> and [[Public Concern at Work]] (PCaW)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pcaw.co.uk |title=pcaw.co.uk |publisher=pcaw.co.uk |access-date=8 July 2012}}</ref> in the United Kingdom. Depending on the circumstances, it is not uncommon for whistleblowers to be ostracized by their coworkers, discriminated against by future potential employers, or even fired from their organization. A campaign directed at whistleblowers with the goal of eliminating them from the organization is referred to as [[mobbing]]. It is an extreme form of [[workplace bullying]] wherein the group is set against the targeted individual.<ref>Matthiesen SB, Bjorkelo B, Burke RJ "Workplace Bullying as the Dark Side of Whistleblowing" in Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace: Developments in Theory, Research, and Practice (2012)</ref>