Fighting against secrecy

We need whistle-blowers to draw attention to official failures and wrongdoing, now more than ever.
For while more information is available than ever before, there is also a record number of people paid to ensure that only the right messages about their government or private organisations reach the public.
Until recently our main sources of reliable information were newspapers, radio, television and magazines. Now we also have millions of websites on the internet, including the newspapers’ own websites, which are proving remarkably popular and increasing their reach far beyond what is possible with print alone.
The problem with the internet is that the volume of information it holds grows vast beyond comprehension while the number of sites which are reliable for unbiased accuracy remains correspondingly small.
So we rely on the media to trawl the oceans of information for what is accurate and relevant to us.
This the media works hard to do,
obstructed by the policy of major organisations who ban employees from speaking to journalists. An example is Royal Mail, which does not want anyone speaking off message when they are closing post
offices.
These large organisations hire press or communications officers to pump up positive stories and play down or hide the negative.
So we increasingly need whistle-blowers with the courage to reveal truths which are hidden from the public but they should know about.
Philip Welch