What is a Whistleblower?

A whistleblower is the name given to an informant, who reports a case of any misconduct or malpractice by an employer or an organization. This informant is more often than not an employee of the organization concerned. In a serious attempt to encourage the disclosure of illegal activities or malpractices, many federal as well as state statutes now prohibit all employers from exercising any form of retaliation against an employee who has blown the whistle and thus filed a report. In the context of environmental law, whistleblowers play a significant role in reporting environmental violations by their employers.

The kinds of whistleblowers who are most common to come across are internal whistleblowers. These are those who witness misconduct and make a report of it to another employee or perhaps a superior who is a part of the company or organization. A complete contrast to the internal whistleblower is the external one. The external whistleblower would be responsible for reporting a misconduct that he witnesses to a person or entity that is outside the organization. In such a case, depending on how severe the wrong-doing actually is the whistleblower could report the illegal activity to lawyers, law enforcers, watchdog bodies or the media. Also depending on the nature of the misconduct that needs to be reported, local, state, or even federal agencies can be approached.

To put it quite simply a whistleblower is a person who is an employee or perhaps a former employee who makes a report of any misconduct or unfair activities to a concerned authority. Such authorities are usually entities who possess the power to take some kind of corrective action. It takes courage and strength to actually face up to a situation like that in an organization and then go out and blow the whistle on it. Whistleblowers can be a real help to society today.