Why do we need whistle-blowers?

What motivates whistle-blowers to disclose official information, corruption, or fraud to a wider public? Despite risk to reputation, livelihood and even life, whistle-blowers will work with investigative journalists to bring to light illegal activities that would otherwise go undetected.

What protection does our legal system afford such individuals and what of the ‘bad leakers’ who are motivated to disclose information for personal political or financial gain and no regard to public interest?  

Chair: Ann Packard FRSA

Panellists:

Georgina Halford-Hall is the chief executive officer of WhistleblowersUK and the secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Whistleblowing. She has spent the past eight years building the case for bolstering protections for whistleblowers in the UK, as well as helping whistleblowers successfully defend their case at tribunal. Working with the APPG on Whistleblowing, she has supported efforts to establish a new Office of the Whistleblower; a project to deliver effective protection for whistleblowers, sanctions for abusers, and education for the public on their rights.

Iain G Mitchell KC was called to the Scottish Bar in 1976 and took silk in 1992. He was called to the English Bar and commenced practice in England in 2012. He is accredited as a mediator by the Mediation Bureau (Scotland) and by Mediation Forum Ireland. He is a member of the Scottish Council for International Arbitration and sat on the bench as a Temporary Sheriff from 1992 to 1997. Iain is an experienced litigator with a wide and varied civil practice, and the only Scottish Silk recommended by the Legal 500 for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law.

Dr Eamonn O'Neill is an academic and internationally-award winning journalist based in Scotland. He took both his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the University of Strathclyde where he went on to lecture for 14 years, until taking up his current position as associate professor in Journalism, at Edinburgh Napier University. He has written articles, books, plays, scripts, and major works of non-fiction.