Tuesday 11th June

It may have escaped you, but there is currently yet another whistle-blower story lurking just beneath the headlines of the news.  It involves the CIA and our very own spymasters GHCQ and a computer programme ‘Prism’; that has ‘allegedly been reading peoples e-mails and phone chat.  The Americans in particular seem to be enraged by the concept that anyone might spill the beans about a government organisation or a private company’s actions, even if, and actually especially if, they are unethical, immoral or even illegal.

We have had the ridiculous situation here too where whistleblowers in the NHS or government have been hounded through the courts, as if they indeed were the guilty party when all they had done was to reveal wrongdoings at the heart of our system.

I think it takes a particular type of bravery to be a whistle-blower, because they not only take away your job and livelihood and often drag you through the courts, but it is almost impossible to find a new employer who will take on a known whistleblower.  For obvious reasons they all stick together.

We have the crazy state of affairs where Julian Assange the founder of ‘Wikileaks’ is holed up in an embassy in London and Bradley Wiggins who conscientiously released thousands of documents detailing American foreign policy facing a possible 153 years in prison.  And I bet he gets no parole either.

Why is the greatest crime telling the truth?   And would you have the strength to blow the whistle yourself?  I am not absolutely sure I would have, because despite easy coffee-table assertions, when it comes to it it must be a lot harder to do than to say.  We are in the middle of a battle of freedoms and the internet is the battleground.  Will it become a democratic forum where no-one can hide, or another state and big-business controlled plaything?