Participating in an Interview
It is very important to establish the ground rules of the conversation with the reporter before the interview itself is conducted. Explain in what capacity you are willing to speak, and get the reporter’s confirmation of the terms in writing. Reporters offer interviews in various formats: Phone or Zoom call — the most common interview […]
Working with the Press
“An aggressive phone query from 60 Minutes can be more effective at nipping retaliation than 100 hours from a top lawyer billing $500 per hour.” Tom Devine & Tarek F. Maassarani, The Corporate Whistleblower’s Survival Guide: A Handbook for Committing the Truth (2011), p. 88 While speaking to a reporter can trigger certain source protections, […]
Making Contact With a Journalist
When it is time to initiate contact with the media, follow these steps to help set the stage for a conversation. Create a designated email address To avoid mixing your whistleblowing communications with your personal messaging — or worse, your work messaging — create a unique email address to use exclusively for this process. Remember […]
Working with Colleagues, Unions & Civil Society
Solidarity is the best protection. It’s hard to discredit 10, 40 people. Retaliation becomes counterproductive.” Tom Devine, Legal Director of the Government Accountability Project “Working with coworkers to build support for changing company practices and reporting internally may work for some things, but there will likely come a time when the company doesn’t want to […]
Finding the Right Journalist
Once a whistleblower is ready to come forward, they must find a media outlet and/or reporter to share their story with — which can be a tedious process, especially for someone unfamiliar with today’s digital media landscape and the focus of various publications. This checklist is a helpful guide: Identify your target audience. Every media […]
Working with Lawyers
Talking to a lawyer is not a breach of your NDA. What you say to a lawyer is protected by the attorney–client privilege.” Tyler Shultz, Theranos whistleblower “A well-informed and sympathetic attorney can offer assistance at every step of the whistleblowing process, not just in the courtroom against retaliation. An attorney can help you prevent […]
Understanding the Press
Roles Reporters are at the forefront of the media landscape, but many roles in a newsroom contribute to the journalistic process: Reporters — Within a news organization, reporters are usually hired to cover a specified subject or topic (“beat”). These coverage areas can be broad (such as business) or detailed (such as Uber and the […]
Talking to Family and Friends
It can be useful to get a consensus from your family and those close to you on how to move forward so they understand how they will be impacted by your speaking out.” Tom Devine, Legal Director of the Government Accountability Project “It’s important to make sure your family is starting this journey with eyes […]
Creating Tangible Change
In recent years, whistleblowing in the tech space has led to concrete change. Here are several noteworthy examples. Calls from shareholders for corporate whistleblower protections Following Timnit Gebru’s firing, shareholders of Google’s parent company Alphabet filed a resolution asking its board to oversee a review of corporate whistleblower policies and their effectiveness in protecting employees. […]
Building a Team and Solidarity: Introduction
“Unlike a career or skill learned over time, safely disclosing information isn’t typically an art that people are able to practice . . . The best way to combat this lack of experience is by working with a partner — a person or group that has been through the process before and can help navigate […]
