Whistleblowing is defined as “raising a concern about wrongdoing within an organization or through an independent structure associated with it.” An employee who is concerned about some wrongdoing can stay silent, blow the whistle internally, blow the whistle externally, or leak the information anonymously. The true whistleblower acts in the interest of society with no possibility of personal gain, and commonly suffers personal harm for revealing the truth.

Richard Calland of the Open Democracy Advice Centre in Cape Town and Guy Dehn of Public Concern at Work in the U.K., lead world experts and important whistleblowers to produce a fascinating, timely and well-balanced book.

Analysis of policy approaches to whistleblowing in the United States, Britain, Australia, South Africa and Japan — provided on CD — shows new recognition of the need to protect whistleblowers, but it is clear that the best-intentioned laws can be undermined by a culture of self-interest.

Most discouraging is the reversal, in practice by the judiciary in the U.S., of otherwise excellent law intended to protect whistleblowers.

This book brings together stories by four whistleblowers from around the world. The authors describe the difficult choices they made. They reveal what worked, what did not, and why, and the immediate and long-term consequences of their actions.

These and other examples show that ordinary people do not study or plan whistleblowing before they are confronted with difficult choices. They recognize a potential harm and sense a fundamental responsibility to avoid risk for others. Sounding the warning internally often results in just the opposite from what the naïve whistleblower expects — the institution may deny any wrongdoing and retaliate against the whistleblower, now perceived as a threat.

Only later may the whistleblower become aware of much larger issues and layers of complexity that were not apparent. The would-be whistleblower needs yet more courage to choose to stand for societal good rather than succumb in order to reduce self-risk. But at this stage silence and self-protection are no longer options.

Ultimately optimistic, this book should be read by university students and all citizens. It provides invaluable documentation, teaching that nothing is more powerful than the truth and that organizations benefit when employees have an alternative to silence.

Brenda Gallie is professor of ophthalmology, molecular and medical genetics and medical biophysics at the University of Toronto and head of the retinoblastoma program at the Hospital for Sick Children. She first recognized the importance of whistleblowing as a fundamental social safety net when a scientist under her leadership blew the whistle on the potential harm of a drug being tested on children involved in an industry-sponsored clinical trial.