Protect’s Head of Advice & Advocacy, Bob Matheson, reflects on Cork University Business School event on Whistleblowing and Advocacy Groups
On the 2nd March 2022, Protect’s Head of Advice & Advocacy spoke on a panel at Cork University Business School. The event – entitled Whistleblowing and Advocacy Groups – was one of a series that are being held in relation to the topic of whistleblowing. The series is being run in conjunction with NUI Galway, Maynooth University and whistleblowingimpact.org, and this panel followed the first, which was looking at whistleblowing and the media.
Bob shared the panel with John Devitt, CEO of Transparency International Ireland, and Amanda Hitt, Director of the Government Accountability Project’s Food Integrity Campaign. Both individuals have been working in the field of whistleblowing-advice for well over a decade, and shared a number of fascinating insights with the audience.
The panel was focused on the work that organisations like Protect, TI-IE and GAP can do to advise and support whistleblowers. Since its very inception, Protect has been advising whistleblowers throughout the UK, and there is probably no organisation in the world that has advised as many whistleblowers as it has.
Advice is such a central component of improving outcomes for whistleblowers and whistleblowing, and yet, it often doesn’t receive the same attention that policies, hotlines, and legal rights do. The event was a great opportunity to give the topic the airtime that it deserved, and a great opportunity to share notes with some of the world’s foremost practitioners.
You can watch the event here.
And find out more about the series of events here.