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Opinion | Don’t believe the absurd conspiracy theories: there’s no way people could have been killed in Hong Kong without anyone speaking out
- A whistle-blower culture is taking hold around the world. So, even with scepticism about the official line, it is puzzling that some in Hong Kong still believe there were deaths in an MTR station even though no one has come forward
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Why you can trust SCMP
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Like many of us, I found time over the holiday season to catch up with some films. One of them – which I can certainly recommend – was Official Secrets.
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The film is based on a true story. It is set during the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003. A British intelligence agency employee called Katharine Gun – played by Keira Knightley – leaks sensitive information about a secret American scheme to boost international support for an invasion of Iraq.
She is arrested – and if you want to know how the rest of the story goes, you will have to see the movie.
Whistle-blowers like Gun can have a major impact when they go public with information about possible wrongdoing within governments, companies and other organisations. One of the most famous examples is Edward Snowden, the former American spy agency contractor who revealed details of the United States’ global surveillance operations. Here in Hong Kong, whistle-blowers have revealed irregularities in infrastructure projects.
There is now widespread recognition that citizens who know about abuses in the public or private sector should come forward.
Some countries have laws to protect these people. Many companies committed to good corporate governance – including my own – actually have a whistle-blower policy to assure employees that they can and should report any suspected misconduct within the organisation.
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