Whistleblowing Research Articles

The Law of Criminal Informant in Ethiopia

Many jurisdictions use criminal informants –suspects or defendants who provide evidence in return to a charge or a sentence benefit– to investigate and prosecute mainly organized crimes. Ethiopia has also embraced this investigation and prosecution tool with respect to some selected crimes. This article examines and explicates the legal framework on criminal informant in the context of four proclamations governing corruption, terrorism, trafficking and smuggling in persons, and witness and whistle blowers protection. I argue that the law suffers considerable limitations and gaps in articulating complete, clear and coherent standards for informant selection, and consistent concessions and benefits, as well as in terms of instituting adequate guarantees and meaningful enforcement mechanisms to protect defendants against the blemishes of the informant system.
 Key terms
 Criminal informant, Evidence, Substantial evidence, Concessions, Safeguards, Witness protection, Ethiopia

Negritud y género: la representación de la mujer negra en la literatura argentina decimonónica

Este trabajo se propone analizar la representación que se hace de la mujer negra en los escritos fundacionales de la literatura argentina del siglo XIX. Considerada como un sujeto subalterno y doblemente discriminado por su color y por su feminidad, la mujer negra viene retratada desde el ámbito político y social. José Mármol, Esteban Echeverría y José Hernández nos describen en Amalia, El Matadero y Martín Fierro a una figura femenina delatora y animalizada. Así, en este artículo, presentaremos primero el panorama sociohistórico y político de la condición negra y femenina en Argentina y analizaremos después, por obra, la imagen y protagonismo de la mujer negra.

Emergence of Lyme disease as a social problem: analysis of discourse using the media content.

Chronic Lyme disease (LD) is a matter of debate worldwide and has emerged as a social problem. We aim to analyze the media content and describe the transformation process of a collective pain into a social problem in France. Using social science methodology, a corpus of articles from 20 newspapers and videos from seven major TV stations from 1987 to 2017 were analyzed for discourse content. The speaking times and the frequency of interventions between doctors supporting the official guidelines and those against them were compared using the Mann-Whitney test and the Chi-square test, respectively. In France, the media discourse is carried through testimonials from patient organizations and a professor of infectiology who acted as a whistleblower (WB). We showed that the emergence of the LD alert in the media corresponds to the process described by social sciences as 'naming, blaming, claiming'. Since his first article in 2014, the WB has featured in 24% (22/89) of newspaper articles compared with 20% (18/89) for doctors defending the official guidelines (P = 0.52). Since his first appearance on a TV newscast in 2014, the WB has appeared in 45% (22/49) of news reports on LD with 24% of the speaking time compared with 22% (11/49) for doctors defending the official guidelines (P = 0.018). Media coverage of LD has been unbalanced since 2014 and promotes associations as well as the WB, who seems to be better identified than any of the different doctors defending the official guidelines.

Investigation and analysis on the status quo of education and management on research integrity: Taking hospitals, medical colleges and medical research institutes for example

Objective To understand the current situation of education and management of research integrity in hospitals, medical colleges and medical research institutes. Methods A questionnaire survey and data analysis were conducted among 115 management personnel of scientific research and education management departments in 40 hospitals, medical colleges and medical research institutes. Results 69.57% of the management personnel showed their institutions were able to offer courses related to academic norms or research integrity, 71.30% of the management personnel showed their institutions have formulated punishment regulations related to violating academic integrity or ethics, and 59.13% of the management personnel showed their institutions were able to take the initiative to impose punishment measures after identification research misconduct, more than50% of the management personnel agree it is very necessary to promulgate corresponding rules and regulations, establish research integrity files, implement the one-vote veto system for those who seriously violate research integrity, and carry out research integrity education/academic ethics training/normative education among researchers, more than 70% of the management personnel believe that system constraints, integrity education, increasing penalties, clear responsibilities, supervision and whistleblowing can reasonably and effectively prevent violations of research integrity. Conclusions The education and management of research integrity in hospitals, medical colleges and medical research institutes need to be improved. We should further strengthen the education, training and dissemination of research integrity, improve the cognitive level and self-discipline awareness of research integrity, formulate and improve relevant management systems, supervisory and disciplinary mechanisms. Then, we should purify academic atmosphere and create a good academic atmosphere. Key words: Medicine; Scientific research management; Research integrity; Integrity education; Integrity management

An Evaluation of Fraud and Deposit Money Banks’ Profitability in Nigeria: (2009-2018)

This work evaluates Fraud and Profitability of Deposit Money Banks (DMB’s) in Nigeria for ten years (2009-2018); with the specific objective of assessing whether the rate at which fraud occurs, the number of persons involved in fraud, the amount targeted in fraud and the loss that the banks incurred to fraud has significant impact on Profitability for the period. Using Regression Analysis on historical data from Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) Reports, we found out that there exists a strong positive correlation between DMB’s Fraud and Profitability at more than 90%; and judging by our data analytics at 5% level of significance, the frequency of fraud, fraud amount and monies that could not be recovered from fraud proved to assert strong influence on the profitability of DMB’s in Nigeria with only Fraud Involvement proving insignificant. To mitigate fraud, we recommend that banks create fraud policies that are robust enough to prevent fraud perpetrators from committing fraud and a Whistleblowing System (WBS) that guarantees protection for a Whistle Blower.

Ortaokul Öğretmenlerinin Örgütsel Muhalefet Davranışlarına İlişkin Algılarının Çeşitli Değişkenler Açısından İncelenmesi

This research investigates the perceptions of teachers regarding their organizational dissent behaviors in secondary schools in central Buca, İzmir. It is a descriptive survey administered to 347 middle school teachers to determine whether their perceptions change depending on their gender, educational status, being a union member and using social media. A subscale named “Dissident Behaviors” of “Organizational Dissent Scale” developed by Özdemir (2010) was used. Data was analyzed via SPSS 15 for arithmetic mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA and LSD test. The participants “sometimes” dissented, and “frequently” employed upward dissent, and “sometimes” used lateral dissent and whistle blowing. Results show that teachers’ gender and social media usage does not create a meaningful difference in their upward dissent, lateral dissent and whistleblowing behaviors. Teachers’ educational status does not create a meaningful difference in terms of their upward dissent and whistleblowing; however, creates a meaningful difference in lateral dissent. Teachers’ who are union members show similar dissident behaviors in terms of upward and lateral dissent, however their dissident behaviors differ meaningfully in terms of whistleblowing.

Whistle Blowing, Forced CEO Turnover, and Misconduct: The Role of Socially Minded Employees and Directors

We examine the response of prosocial employees and boards of directors to corporate misconduct. We develop several proxies for the presence of prosocial employees and directors based on the density of social networks and social capital in the county of the firms’ headquarters and companies’ relevant corporate social responsibility ratings. We document that proxies for prosocial employees and directors are associated with an increase in whistle blowing and forced chief executive officer turnover in a sample of firms that engage in misconduct. The higher expected cost of misconduct in firms with prosocial employees is associated with a lower likelihood of misconduct. Our findings highlight the role of nonfinancial imperatives of employees and directors in mitigating misconduct. This paper was accepted by Suraj Srinivasan, accounting.

If whistleblowing is the answer, ask a better question.

If whistleblowing is the answer, ask a better question.

Perceptions of Interability Communication in an Interpersonal Relationship and the Reduction of Intergroup Prejudice

Guided by intergroup contact theory, this study examined participants’ communication with their most frequent contact with an invisible physical disability and their attitudes and stereotypes toward people with disabilities. Results indicated that participants’ perceptions of communication frequency and quality with the contact and the contact’s disclosure about disability all had a significant indirect effect on attitudes and stereotypes through social support and intergroup anxiety sequentially. Contact quality had significant negative direct and indirect effects on endorsement of stereotypes and a significant positive indirect effect on attitudes. Protective disclosure had a significant positive indirect effect on cognitive attitudes through social support.

계획행동이론의 확장을 통한 경마산업 종사자의 내부고발 의도 예측에 관한 연구 : 윤리풍토, 도덕적 규범, 지각된 위험의 역할 탐색을 중심으로

계획행동이론의 확장을 통한 경마산업 종사자의 내부고발 의도 예측에 관한 연구 : 윤리풍토, 도덕적 규범, 지각된 위험의 역할 탐색을 중심으로

Protecting Journalists’ Sources Without a Shield: Four Proposals

Journalists’ right to protect the identities of their confidential sources relies on an inconsistent set of court decisions based on constitutional and common law interpretations and state statutes. Efforts to bring some consistency to federal law through the passage of a shield law have stalled while journalists face new threats because of the vulnerability of their communications to discovery and monitoring by third parties. Also, the entry of non-professional communicators into the news ecosystem is causing courts to reevaluate and redefine long-standing protections. This article proposes four ways that sources could be better protected from unmasking without the passage of a shield law: improving whistleblower laws to better protect people who report illegal or unethical actions to the media; vastly reducing the number of government secrets to make “leaking” less attractive or necessary; changing legal strategy to focus on protecting the anonymity of sources instead of the rights of journalists to keep secrets; and more widespread and intelligent use of encrypted applications and software could all improve the security of journalistic sources. Because of the complexity of amending multiple whistleblower protection laws and changing the government’s document classification system, the article argues that the best solutions may be to persuade news organizations to change legal tactics and to use better encryption technology.

Efficient Ring Signature Scheme Without Random Oracle from Lattices

Among post-quantum alternatives, latticebased cryptography is the most promising one, due to its simple operations, reduction from aver-age-case to worstcase hardness, and supporting of rich functionalities. Ring signature enables a user to sign anonymously on behalf of an adaptively chosen group, and has multiple applications in anonymous e-voting, anonymous authentication, whistle blowing etc. However, most lattice-based ring signature schemes were constructed in the random oracle model from lattice basis delegation and they suffer large verification key sizes as a common disadvantage. This work proposes an efficient ring signature scheme from lattice basis delegation without random oracle based on the extended split-SIS problem, whose security is approximately as hard as the worst-case SIVP problem. Our scheme is proved to be anonymous and existentially unforgeable under latticebased assumptions. Finally, the verification key size is significantly reduced to a small constant, instead of increasing linearly with the number of ring members.

Social Meanings and Functions of Being Global K-pop Fans

With K-pop hitting the world, a variety of articles on the Korean wave are pouring out, but research on K-pop fans, one of the key factors driving K-pop's success is lacking. This paper explores what are global K-pop fans on the basis of observation notes and media data centered on events in 2018. It analyzes the social meanings and functions of global K-pop fans with a focus on the participatory culture of the fan communities. The findings indicate global K-pop fans have been empowered and diversified into professionals, social activists, and whistle blowers. Moreover, significant questions explored in cultural studies are answered. First, in contrast to the way in which pop culture spreaded based on the Western-centered neo-liberalism, K-pop is seen as an unprecedented cultural contra flow case of the spread of culture from the Third World to the developed world, and the voluntary participation by K-pop fans made it happen. In addition, K-pop created a third space where fan communities create new culture somewhat resistant to cultural industries by cultural capital centered on global conglomerates. The results of the study help us understand a new social identity of ‘global K-pop fans’ and their social functions in relation to a new variety of cultural play that they have creatively constructed to spread K-pop worldwide. Furthermore, this study points out ways in which fans seek cultural appropriation based on K-pop hybridity by incorporating the unique collective Korean cultural identity into their own fan community culture.

Pengaruh Faktor-Faktor Individual Terhadap Niat Melakukan Whistle-Blowing Internal Dan Eksternal Pada Akuntan Di Batam

This study aims to examine the perceptions of employees of the Accounting Section in Batam related with the influence of individual factors on the intention of conducting internal and external whistle-blowing. Intention is someone's desire to behave. The results of this study are expected to add understanding related to the perception of accounting employees to intentions of internal whistle-blowing and external whistle-blowing. The research team also hopes that the results of this research can be an input for companies in Batam, to design whistle blowing systems and report unethical acts at work, so as to detect fraud and ultimately good corporate governance can be created. The method used to obtain research data is through questionnaires distributed to employees of the Student Accounting Study Program of State Polytechnic of Batam who work as an accountant. The collected questionnaires were analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results of this study indicate that there is influence of whistle-blowing attitude toward intention to perform internal whistle-blowing, there is influence of subjective norm to intention to conduct external whistle-blowing, there is influence of perception behavior behavior to intention to do internal whistle-blowing. On the other hand, there is no effect of attitudes on whistle-blowing on intentions to external whistle-blowing, no subjective subjective effect on intent to conduct internal whistle-blowing, no influence of perceptual behavior control on intent to external whistle-blowing.

The new EU Whistleblowing Directive

The new EU Whistleblowing Directive

Whistleblowing

Whistleblowing

The Role of Whistle Blowing Policy as an Anti-Corruption Tool in Nigeria

The Role of Whistle Blowing Policy as an Anti-Corruption Tool in Nigeria Sylvester Anya, Gabriel Iwanger Abstract The menace of corruption has bedeviled Nigeria over the years. Several statutory and policy attempts have been devised to arrest this ill, with hardly a positive result. The present administration tackles corruption in Nigeria through the whistle blowing policy. Although the policy was received with mixed feelings, it recorded tremendous success at the initial stage. However, the story subsequently changed. The decline may be attributed to the number of problems the policy created more than it sought to solve. One of the major challenges associated with this policy is lack of legislation facilitating it. Similarly, the policy is more interested in recovering funds than in punishing the actors behind the act thus vitiating the punitive objective of the criminal justice system which serves as deterrence. The whistle blower seems inadequately protected. This paper seeks to examine the law and practice of whistle blowing policy in Nigeria vis-a-vis what is obtainable in some jurisdictions. It submits that the current legal practice is inadequate to strengthen the policy in Nigeria. This work finds that unless some global standards and practices are adopted, the fight against corruption in Nigeria through the whistle blowing policy may be counterproductive. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jlcj.v7n1a4

Deep Web: A Residual of e-Public Administration

This article intention was to understand more about deep web, including dark web, as a critical part of stateless-based Public Administration paradigm. Therefore, the objectives of this research are as follows: (1) to investigate basic data and rough classification of deep webs, and (2) to suggest the solution for e-Public Administration. Documentary research and descriptive statistics like frequency and percentage were used in this study. The findings found that the top four of live deep webs were Non-English696 Sites (14.8%), Cryptocurrency 685 sites (14.5%), Media and Forum for uploading, downloading, and discussion 653 sites (13.8%), and Hosting 473 sites (10.0%). The activities in deep web were Non-English, Cryptocurrency, Media and Forum, Hosting, Under construction/Blank/Seized, Marketplace Drugs, Search Engines, Marketplace Commercial Services, Marketplace Financial, Blogs, Messaging, Private Web Site, Tutorials, Libraries and Wiki, Closed Website, Hacking, Whistle Blowing, Security, Marketplace Betting, P2P File Sharing, Cybercriminals, Dangerous threats, and Boards. In addition, Neural Network and Genetic Algorithm of AI and foundation of an autonomous public organization for controlling deep web in form of self-directed team under starfish organization-based structure were the best solutions for coping with the severe change in Public Administration.

Analyzing Whistleblowing Practices at Higher Secondary School Level in District Mianwali

The purpose to conducts this research work was Analyzing Whistleblowing Practices at Higher Secondary School Level in District Mianwali. Whistle blowing is the observation of unlawful and mal-practices by the employee of an organization to people or bodies with misuse of power (Near and Miceli, 1995). All the teaching staff and all the students of Higher Secondary of District Mianwali were constitute the population of the study. The selection of the sample of the study was made by using the multi-stage sampling technique. At first stage, a cluster random sampling was employed to make cluster of population. At second stage, stratified sampling technique was employed to draw the sample from 14 Higher Secondary Schools of District Mianwali; at third stage simple random sampling technique was employed to select 6 Higher Secondary Schools in District Mianwali for the study. The questionnaire was the tool of the study. With the help of questionnaire data were collected. After collection the researches utilized more than one statistical technique for instance percentage, mean scores, SD, t-test, and Correlation for data analysis and tabulating. Keywords: Whistleblowing, Whistleblower, Higher Secondary School. DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-1-09

Snakes on a Train by Kathryn Dennis

Reviewed by: Snakes on a Train by Kathryn Dennis Elizabeth Bush Dennis, Kathryn Snakes on a Train; written and illus. by Kathryn Dennis. Feiwel, 2019 [32p] ISBN 978-1-250-30440-7 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R 1-4 yrs “The conductor takes the tickets/as the snakes all slither on./ The tracks are checked./ The whistle blows. It’s time to move along./ Hissssssssssssssss goes the sound of the train.” So opens this new variant on the perennially popular combination of trains and picture books; in this title, a simple trek on the tracks gains momentum from the giggle-worthy passengers and crew who enjoy the ride in a way only legless, armless, tubular critters can. Candy-bright snakes—reduced here to tapered shapes with googly eyes—hand over (so to speak) tickets with their mouths; a signal snake toots the horn with the tip of his pointed tail, and passengers glimpsed through the train windows read a propped-up book, share a propped-up sno-cone through straws, or simply enjoy the view. Any journey is more exciting when there’s a bit of trouble, and a pink pig has tumbled off the back of the train and lies, startled but stoic, upside down on the tracks. No worries; the brake snake hangs upside down off the emergency pull to pick up the errant rider, and this show is back on the road. A pitch-black tunnel with pairs of googly eyes glowing in the dark, a sleek railroad [End Page 202] bridge with even sleeker water, fish, and scalloped waves below, and a platform with snakes popping out of holes to greet the arrival are rendered in stylish shapes on a plain white backdrop, and final spreads of snakes coiled up to sleep under an “S” constellation of stars provide just the right wind-down for a bedtime story. Copyright © 2019 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois