Countries like US, UK and France have long protected whistleblowers
Countries like US, UK and France have long protected whistleblowers
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| US President Richard Nixon was forced to leave the White House following the Deep Throat controversy |
Unlike India, countries like the US, UK and France have laws since long to protect life, dignity and property of those who blow their whistles against crimes.u00a0
The term whistleblowers traces its origin back to the practice of English police officials, who would alert their counterparts of a crime by blowing whistles. It now refers to people who report against corruption at work.
The 1863 False Claims Act in the US, for the first time, had provisions for the protection of those who had evidence against fraud. Later, in 1912, the first law was adopted in the US to protect the whistleblowers called the Lloyd-La Follette Act, by virtue of which the Federal employees of the state had the right to furnish information against any such act to the US Congress. Since then, there have been acts and regulations at every such instance.
Take Deep Throat. A whistleblower case involving Richard Nixon, former US president; the man who has always been a question for history too had his misdemeanors reported by the fated whistle blower.
Mark Felt, former second-in-command, US Federal Bureau of Investigation, disclosed in 2005 that he had been the 'Deep Throat', the whistleblower who supplied crucial information to reporters about the offences of President Richard Nixon. He is known to have exposed the White House cover-up, which forced Nixon to leave office before he was impeached. Though, Felt was convicted later but was provided a huge protection cover by the state.
In 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act also called the Corporate and Criminal Fraud Accountability Act came as a landmark. It guards employees of publicly-traded corporations from retaliation for reporting any violations at the place. It criminalises employer retaliation as well as makes it necessary for the corporations to create procedures for internal whistle blowing.
