yup, as simple as that

yup, as simple as that by jason brown avaiki nius agency Cultural Development Secretary Sonny Williams is interested in a piece of legislation designed to protect whistleblowers — people who speak out about abuse of power. “What’s it called?” “It’s called ‘The Whistleblowers Act,’” explains New Zealand Journalism Training Organisation Executive Director Bill Southworth. “Really?” asks Williams, eyes arching in disbelief. “Yes.” They laugh at the simplicity of it. Welcome to the weird world of the media where things are often exactly as they seem. Including whistleblowers, people on the inside who speak out publicly against abuse of power, often in government but in business as well. New Zealand only adopted the legislation a few short years ago. Before then, public servants and others could be prosecuted for exposing private information, even when it was clearly in the public interest to do so. Under the new legislation, whistleblowers are now protected if their allegations are serious enough. In other words, the worse the problem, the more protection whistleblowers get. Whistleblowers were one of several topics covered during day two of the media training workshop being held at Pukapuka hostel.