Why whistleblowers need protection
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2019
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A new EU directive grants new legal rights to those reporting corporate and government misbehaviour.
Ed Butler asks David Lewis, professor of employment law at Middlesex University, how significant the new legal framework is and why it was needed.
Plus we replay an interview from 2016 in which lawyer Mychal Wilson retells his early experiences as a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company in Los Angeles, and why he blew the whistle on underhand practices. And practicing Louisiana doctor William LaCorte talks about his reputation as a serial whistleblower - making tens of millions of dollars from exposing the wrongdoing of big pharma and hospitals.
(Picture: Whistle hanging in front of blue background; Credit: thomas-bethge/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello there, I'm Ed Butler. |
| 0:03.5 | Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:06.1 | Coming up, as Europe introduces new whistleblower laws, we're asking, should you be paid for publicizing your company's crimes? |
| 0:15.2 | Whistleblowers should be allowed to sharing the bounty because whistleblowers help ferret out the fraud. |
| 0:21.4 | They do the right thing and they put themselves on the line |
| 0:25.9 | in fear of retaliation and fear of being blacklisted. |
| 0:29.1 | But is cash really the right way to tease out the truth? |
| 0:32.2 | If you introduce financial incentives, people start asking about motivation |
| 0:36.3 | when they should be asking. Is this message |
| 0:38.5 | credible? Should we investigate it? Should we act upon it? That's supporting the whistleblower, |
| 0:43.7 | Business Daily from the BBC. Search for the term whistleblower online these days, and there's |
| 0:52.8 | going to be a fair bit of this. |
| 0:54.6 | The whistleblower whose story helped to set off this impeachment inquiry is getting some backup. |
| 1:00.6 | Lawyers for that CIA employee say they now represent, quote, multiple whistleblowers. |
| 1:07.0 | They tell me that, but would not provide a specific number, saying it's at least two. |
| 1:11.9 | And then, a fair bit more of this. |
| 1:14.3 | The whistleblower never saw the conversation. |
| 1:17.7 | He got his information, I guess, second to third hand. |
| 1:20.7 | He didn't know what was on the call. |
| 1:22.4 | No, these are bad people. |
| 1:24.3 | These are dishonest people. |
| 1:26.1 | They should look at him for treason because he is making |
... |
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