Introducing The Ethics of Whistleblowing by Eric Boot

Have you ever noticed a violation at your workplace where, on the one hand, you feel you should disclose it to the media and thereby prevent the violation from occurring, and on the other hand, the duty to protect the confidential secrets of that organization or company (which you signed in your employment papers) compels you to refrain from doing so? Have you faced the guilty conscience of being assigned a task that causes significant harm to the public interest, in which you are complicit, yet you cannot disclose that violation because it would cause you to lose your job?

"Whistleblowing" is a term we Iranians have become more familiar with in recent years (though it may still be unfamiliar to many), but it is a phenomenon the Western world has been grappling with for years, contending with significant instances of it. Whistleblowers (disclosers of secret violations) have brought about major changes and transformations in the politics of countries like the United States, to the extent that the importance of their work led to the enactment of laws to support and protect them. Edward Snowden, a former employee of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, caused a great stir in recent years by disclosing a large volume of classified documents that revealed the government's project of surveillance of (and spying on) citizens' information. It is still debated in circles whether Snowden is a national hero or a traitor to his country. However, he was not the first to engage in the disclosure of violations, and this act has a history even within America itself.

This phenomenon has various aspects, one of the most important of which is the ethical-philosophical discussion of whistleblowing. The book "The Ethics of Whistleblowing," published by Routledge in 2019, has attempted to examine this phenomenon from precisely this aspect. The author first determines the prima facie moral judgment of this act, then states the conditions under which, once fulfilled, whistleblowing becomes morally permissible, and finally discusses the situation in which whistleblowing becomes a mandatory duty for individuals.

Unfortunately, although we have encountered instances of whistleblowing in our country in recent years, one can rarely find a book that examines this phenomenon from an ethical perspective without regard to political agendas. The translation of the book "The Ethics of Whistleblowing" can fill this gap to some extent and serve as a starting point for a methodical discussion about the moral judgment of whistleblowing and how to blow the whistle.

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Book Title: The Ethics of Whistleblowing

Author: Eric Boot

Translator: Iman Abbasnejad

Publisher: Soroush-e Molana

Publication Year: 1401

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PDF file of the book's preliminary pages

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Purchase the book from the Soroush-e Molana Publishing website

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