tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/public-interest-7615/articlesPublic interest – The Conversation2024-03-05T14:01:24Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2240492024-03-05T14:01:24Z2024-03-05T14:01:24ZPublishing Taylor Swift’s flight information: Is it stalking or protected free speech?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579690/original/file-20240304-51556-7v39u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Taylor Swift, flanked by security guards and Donna Kelce, mother of her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, appears at the Super Bowl in February 2024.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://mapi.associatedpress.com/v2/items/528216703c8548edb732773004b4aed9/preview/AP24043163440642.jpg?wm=api&tag=app_id=1,user_id=904438,org_id=101781">Julio Cortez/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jack-sweeney/?sh=bc38f2170831">Jack Sweeney, a junior at the University of Central Florida</a>, says the First Amendment gives him the right to <a href="https://twitter.com/Jxck_Sweeney">publish publicly available</a> information about the flight paths of private jets owned by the rich and famous – including Taylor Swift. </p>
<p>Swift’s legal team – and <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/taylor-swift-jack-sweeney-elon-musk-private-jet-flights-1867604">many of her fans</a> – say that Sweeney posting the comings and goings of the singer’s private plane on social media is technological stalking.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/2024/02/07/jack-sweeney-taylor-swift-legal-track-private-jets/72505276007/">Sweeney also tracks the private planes</a> owned or used by Elon Musk, Ron DeSantis, Mark Zuckerburg, Bill Gates, several Russian oligarchs and others, using public data from a global flight tracking website, TheAirTraffic.com. </p>
<p>I am an attorney and a <a href="https://lynngreenky.com/">scholar who has written</a> about the <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/W/bo156864042.html">boundaries of the First Amendment</a>.</p>
<p>My advice to Mr. Sweeney: The First Amendment is a valuable ally, but its protections might not be available to you in this situation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A blonde woman wears a sequin bodysuit and holds a microphone in one hand. She raises her arm and shows off her muscles." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579688/original/file-20240304-26-axeg2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579688/original/file-20240304-26-axeg2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579688/original/file-20240304-26-axeg2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579688/original/file-20240304-26-axeg2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579688/original/file-20240304-26-axeg2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579688/original/file-20240304-26-axeg2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579688/original/file-20240304-26-axeg2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Taylor Swift performs in Inglewood, Calif., on the Eras Tour on Aug. 7, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1584249148/photo/taylor-swift-performs-during-the-eras-tour-concert-at-sofi-stadium.jpg?s=612x612&w=gi&k=20&c=MB2QbNqs8F6MnRY6xXg_qWlfsqEoV2g8xP-iXFfo9cM=">Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>The arguments, explained</h2>
<p>Since December 2023, Swift’s attorneys have sent Sweeney <a href="https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/2024/02/07/jack-sweeney-taylor-swift-legal-track-private-jets/72505276007/">multiple cease-and-desist</a> letters demanding that he stop sharing the real-time and precise information about Swift’s plane’s location. The most recent letter that has been made public accuses Sweeney of “<a href="https://time.com/6692227/taylor-swift-cease-desist-letter-jack-sweeney-jet-tracker-emissions/">intentional, offensive, and outrageous conduct</a>” that threatens her safety and well-being. </p>
<p>Swift’s attorneys warn Sweeney that if he continues to publish her private travel information, she will seek legal action against him. </p>
<p>Sweeney, who is 21 years old, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/college-student-tracks-elon-musk-jet-forbes-30-under-30-2023-11">has gained fame, and perhaps a fortune</a>, over the past few years with this work. He has several hundred thousand followers across multiple social media platforms, including Instagram, Mastodon, Discord, Telegram, X – formerly known as Twitter – and Threads.</p>
<p>Sweeney argues that he is merely reposting public information as a matter of public interest. Sweeney also believes the public has a <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/6/24063220/taylor-swift-jet-public-data-social-media">right to know</a> that Swift and others are “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68248168">trying to hide the bad PR of (carbon) emissions</a>.” </p>
<p>Sweeney insists that his passion for the environment adds constitutional protection to his activities.</p>
<p>Sweeney is correct that the First Amendment offers robust protection to political speech. Over and over again, the Supreme Court has reminded Americans that protecting <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2010/09-751">political speech is necessary for a strong democracy</a> – but even the shield of political speech has its limits.</p>
<p>The First Amendment does not protect <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2002/01-1107">speech that could further a crime</a>. Speech that terrorizes another person, causing them to fear for their life, can be prosecuted. It is no defense that the speaker <a href="https://casetext.com/case/planned-parenthood-v-amer-coalition-of-life">was trying to make a political point</a>.</p>
<h2>The trail of digital data</h2>
<p>Technology makes the act of gathering information easier than ever before. </p>
<p>Corporations and tech-savvy private citizens like Sweeney can forage through the depths of the digital world, finding and publishing information that most people would rather keep confidential. </p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.whitecase.com/insight-our-thinking/us-data-privacy-guide">though there are some state and federal privacy protections in place</a>, anyone willing to pay for the data can usually learn about people’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/state-of-privacy-laws-in-us/">buying habits</a> or even where they live, work and play. </p>
<p>Dozens of unregulated companies collect this personal information and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/location-tracking-cell-phone.html">log people’s movements via mobile phones</a>. They then store that information in large data files.</p>
<p>Sweeney claims his First Amendment right to publish information about others is as vast as his technological ability to gather personal information about celebrities and other high-profile people. </p>
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<h2>Tread carefully</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.justice.gov/ovw/stalking">The Department of Justice defines stalking</a> as “a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for his or her safety or the safety of others or suffer substantial emotional distress.” </p>
<p>If a court determines that Sweeney is stalking Swift – which legally is considered conduct, not speech – his assertion that he is exercising his First Amendment right will not transform his act of publishing flight information into protected speech.</p>
<p>Sometimes, an action or a certain behavior is intended to communicate a message. For example, people have <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1968/21">worn black armbands</a> in the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/documents/tinker-v-des-moines-landmark-supreme-court-ruling-behalf-student-expression">past to protest the Vietnam War</a>. People also have publicly <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1988/88-155">burned the American flag</a> to show their disapproval of different political decisions or policies.</p>
<p>Wearing an armband and burning the American flag are not illegal activities, so the First Amendment protects the messages attached to these behaviors. </p>
<p>But if someone’s behavior used to communicate a message is unlawful or harmful, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1967/232">the First Amendment will not protect the speaker</a>. In other words, a messenger can be held responsible for any conduct that causes harm, even if the behavior was intended as a form of speech.</p>
<p>Sweeney has not been prosecuted or sued for stalking anybody, so no court has determined if he has indeed engaged in that behavior. But if, as Swift contends, <a href="https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/2024/02/06/jet-tracker-taylor-swift-ucf-jack-sweeney-social-media-twitter-x-reddit-mastadon-bluesky/72491332007/">Sweeney’s actions are simply a more sophisticated form of stalking</a>, the First Amendment will not transform his behavior into protected speech. </p>
<p>So, Mr. Sweeney, back to my advice: Tread carefully. </p>
<p>Technology is powerful, but so is people’s right to be free from terror and harm. The First Amendment may not be available to you to defend your behavior even if you cloak it in political speech.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224049/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynn Greenky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A college junior who has gained a following by sharing high-profile people’s private flight information says that he is sharing public information. Others, like Taylor Swift, say that he is stalking.Lynn Greenky, Professor Emeritus of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Syracuse UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2181082023-11-20T04:45:09Z2023-11-20T04:45:09ZDavid McBride is facing jailtime for helping reveal alleged war crimes. Will it end whistleblowing in Australia?<p>The long-awaited trial of former Australian Defence Force lawyer David McBride was short-lived.</p>
<p>He stood accused of putting national security at risk by sharing confidential information with journalists, who then reported on <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-11/killings-of-unarmed-afghans-by-australian-special-forces/8466642">alleged Australian war crimes</a> in Afghanistan. </p>
<p>An unexpected strategic move by the Department of Defence succeeded in withholding key documents from the ACT Supreme Court, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/17/australian-military-whistleblower-pleads-guilty-over-afghan-files-leak">all but dismantling</a> McBride’s claim for whistleblower protection.</p>
<p>Having now pleaded <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-17/military-whistleblower-david-mcbride-trial-leaked-adf-war-crimes/103119808">guilty</a> to unlawfully sharing classified material, what happens to McBride? And what does it say about the state of whistleblower protection laws in this country?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-and-why-australian-whistleblowing-laws-need-an-overhaul-new-report-195019">How and why Australian whistleblowing laws need an overhaul: new report</a>
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<h2>The end of a winding road</h2>
<p>David McBride was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/07/whistleblower-charged-with-exposing-alleged-military-misconduct-not-afraid-to-go-to-jail">charged in 2019</a> for disclosing secret military information to two ABC journalists. </p>
<p>His concerns had included Australian soldiers being sent to Afghanistan by a government he believed was more concerned with <a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/the-leadership-rewarded-and-encouraged-dishonesty-20231106-p5ehuu">politics</a> than the troops. Interestingly, the court heard last week McBride was also concerned about the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-17/military-whistleblower-david-mcbride-trial-leaked-adf-war-crimes/103119808">“over-investigation”</a> of misconduct by special forces. </p>
<p>Instead, that information revealed allegations of war crimes by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan and a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-19/afghanistan-war-crimes-report-igadf-paul-brereton-released/12896234">culture of cover-up</a> in the Defence Force. </p>
<p>The ABC used the information to publish the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-11/killings-of-unarmed-afghans-by-australian-special-forces/8466642">Afghan Files reports</a>. Many allegations were later supported by the inspector-general of the Australian Defence Force in the <a href="https://www.defence.gov.au/about/reviews-inquiries/afghanistan-inquiry">Brereton report</a>. </p>
<p>That report, released in November 2020, recommended the chief of the Defence Force refer 36 matters relating to 25 incidents and involving 19 individuals to the Australian Federal Police for investigation. </p>
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<p>So far, the only charges to have been laid as a result of these investigations are against McBride himself. A brief of evidence was also prepared against ABC journalist Dan Oakes, though the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/oct/15/abc-journalist-dan-oakes-will-not-be-charged-over-afghan-files-reporting-afp-says">declined to prosecute</a> Oakes on public interest grounds.</p>
<p>It took four years for McBride’s case to get to court. Delays due to the pandemic and issues around maintaining the secrecy of classified information in court prolonged this process. </p>
<p>Eventually, the Department of Defence claimed public interest immunity over key information. This allows the government to withhold evidence (such as classified material) from the court on public interest grounds. </p>
<p>It means neither party can rely on the information. </p>
<p>This strategic decision meant McBride faced difficulties establishing key aspects of his whistleblower case. This included whether the information revealed relevant wrongdoing, his attempts to tell the department or police about his concerns, or whether the extent of the disclosure was necessary to establish wrongdoing. </p>
<p>On the other hand, the information McBride disclosed was security classified defence material that journalists were not authorised to receive. It is, therefore, not particularly surprising that he pleaded guilty to disclosure offences. </p>
<p>His only hope had been to avoid prosecution by grasping the shield of whistleblower protections.</p>
<h2>What next for McBride?</h2>
<p>McBride will now be sentenced for his offences, likely <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-17/military-whistleblower-david-mcbride-trial-leaked-adf-war-crimes/103119808">next year</a>.</p>
<p>There is a chance the court will show leniency in sentencing, taking into account the demonstrated public interest in McBride’s disclosures. </p>
<p>This happened in the prosecution of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-18/act-witness-k-sentencing-hearing/100226438">Witness K,</a> who conspired to reveal an alleged spying operation in East Timor during oil and gas treaty negotiations.</p>
<p>They were not covered by whistleblower laws because the legislation does not apply to intelligence information, and also pleaded guilty to secrecy offences. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tax-office-whistleblowing-saga-points-to-reforms-needed-in-three-vital-areas-187608">Tax office whistleblowing saga points to reforms needed in three vital areas</a>
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<p>Alternatively, the judge may not be swayed by the public interest in McBride’s disclosures and McBride could face a lengthy jail term.</p>
<p>The length of any jail term will depend on a number of factors, such as:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the extent of information disclosed</p></li>
<li><p>the deliberate nature of the disclosures</p></li>
<li><p>a need to deter future disclosures of classified defence information. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>What does this mean for whistleblowers?</h2>
<p>The punishment of McBride would have tragic impacts on whistleblowing in Australia. </p>
<p>Far from being a crime, research has identified whistleblowing as “the single <a href="https://parkesfoundation.org.au/activities/orations/2019-oration/">most important way</a> that wrongdoing or other problems come to light in organisations”.</p>
<p>Whistleblowing led not only to the Brereton report, but the Robodebt inquiry, the Banking royal commission, and <a href="https://www.ccc.qld.gov.au/about-us/our-history/fitzgerald-inquiry">Fitzgerald inquiry</a> into police misconduct, to name but a few high profile examples. </p>
<p>The importance of whistleblowing has been recognised in Public Interest Disclosure Acts across Australia, protecting whistleblowers from reprisals, victimisation and prosecution. </p>
<p>The importance of these protections is heightened in recent years by the government’s willingness to prosecute whistleblowers such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/27/ato-whistleblower-richard-boyle-face-trial-after-immunity-defence-fails">Richard Boyle</a> (who accused the Australian Taxation Office of using <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-09/whistleblower-exposes-ato-cash-grab-targeting-small-businesses/9633140">aggressive tactics</a> to retrieve money), David McBride, and Witness K for calling out government wrongdoing. </p>
<p>Whistleblower protection law is not perfect. Calls for <a href="https://parkesfoundation.org.au/activities/orations/2019-oration/">its improvement</a> point to a need for greater consistency across private and public sector protections. </p>
<p>They also call for better protection for <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UNSWLawJl/2021/44.html">intelligence and defence</a> whistleblowers, and supports for <a href="https://law.uq.edu.au/files/64972/whistleblowing.pdf">press freedom</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-a-new-era-for-australias-whistleblowers-in-the-private-sector-119596">It's a new era for Australia's whistleblowers – in the private sector</a>
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<p>The protections are yet to be tested. McBride’s case would have been the first opportunity to see how courts interpret and apply whistleblower law. </p>
<p>But the government’s decision to withhold information from court stopped these laws from being tested.</p>
<p>It’s easy to see how the government’s reaction to McBride’s decision to blow the whistle will deter future whistleblowers, sending a bad message about transparency, accountability and the importance of calling out wrongdoing by those in positions of power.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218108/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Ananian-Welsh receives UQ Advancement Funding.</span></em></p>David McBride helped bring about a reckoning with the Australian Defence Force, but came at a legal cost. Will it stop others coming forward?Rebecca Ananian-Welsh, Associate Professor, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2120962023-08-24T06:53:49Z2023-08-24T06:53:49ZBushfires focus public attention on climate change for months, but it’s different for storms and floods<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544457/original/file-20230824-19-tr3btm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C12%2C2717%2C1815&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bush-fire-close-night-47274046">VanderWolf Images, Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the world warms and the climate changes, people are experiencing more frequent and intense extreme weather events. Just this year, <a href="https://theconversation.com/european-heatwave-whats-causing-it-and-is-climate-change-to-blame-209653">heatwaves blasted southern Europe</a>, the United States and China; wildfires lit up Greece, Canada and <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-sleepwalking-a-bushfire-scientist-explains-what-the-hawaii-tragedy-means-for-our-flammable-continent-211364">Maui in Hawaii</a>; and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64061588">winter storms froze large parts of the US</a>. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-023-03601-5">new research</a> explores the connection between extreme weather events in Australia and public interest in climate change or global warming between 2009 and 2020. We found that bushfires, storms and floods tended to focus attention on climate change. But, crucially, the effect was short-lived and varied depending on the type of weather event. </p>
<p>In between extreme events, the level of interest in climate change does not appear to be increasing over time. This is despite developments in the science attributing extreme weather events to climate change, and the growing
<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17524032.2019.1687537?src=recsys">tendency of the media</a> to make these connections. </p>
<p>Climate activists and policymakers may be able to use these “focusing events” to raise awareness and harness support for stronger action. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EDjFHV2rkKw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Here’s how climate change is affecting Australian weather.</span></figcaption>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-so-many-climate-records-breaking-all-at-once-209214">Why are so many climate records breaking all at once?</a>
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<h2>Do bushfires, storms and floods garner attention?</h2>
<p>We collected data on extreme weather events from the <a href="https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/">Australian Disaster Resilience Knowledge Hub</a>, which is managed by the <a href="https://www.aidr.org.au/">Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience</a>. </p>
<p>We concentrated on the bushfires, storms and floods that occurred in Australia between 2008 and 2020.</p>
<p>Using the <a href="https://trends.google.com/trends/">Google Trends</a> intensity index to measure people’s attention, we analysed the use of the search terms “climate change” and “global warming” in the months following each event.</p>
<p>We found more searches for climate change and global warming during the month of, and immediately after, an extreme weather event. </p>
<p>However, such heightened attention was rather short-lived. And there were differences in the intensity and duration of this attention, depending on the type of weather event. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-climate-change-is-bringing-bushfires-more-often-but-some-ecosystems-in-australia-are-suffering-the-most-211683">Yes, climate change is bringing bushfires more often. But some ecosystems in Australia are suffering the most</a>
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<p>Major bushfires generated intense and sustained interest. During the month of a major bushfire, attention to climate change increased. The level of attention was higher still one month after the bushfire, and remained elevated for about four months. </p>
<p>Extreme storms prompted the most intense search activity but the effect did not last long. Attention to climate change dissipated one month after the storm. </p>
<p>Major flooding events did not appear to generate significant attention to climate change. This suggests Australians are more likely to think of climate change in terms of its tendency to cause hotter, drier weather, and less inclined to appreciate how it can cause wetter weather as well. </p>
<p>Although there is a growing trend within the media to underscore the connection between extreme weather events and climate change over the past decade, this does not seem to be generating more climate attention. For instance, while the Black Summer bushfires drove an exceptional uptick in climate attention, the same occurred during the Black Saturday bushfires a decade earlier.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-why-climate-change-isnt-always-to-blame-for-extreme-rainfall-206958">Here's why climate change isn't always to blame for extreme rainfall</a>
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<h2>It’s worth paying attention to attention</h2>
<p>Australia has been described as “<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/climate-change-and-the-end-of-australia-238860/">the petri-dish of climate change</a>”. Our continent is prone to a variety of severe climate impacts such as droughts, floods, fires, storms and coral bleaching, and yet we’re also one of the world’s worst <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2021.1905394">climate laggards</a>.</p>
<p>Understanding how Australians respond to extreme weather events could serve as a much-needed catalyst for national climate progress. </p>
<p>But increased climate ambition is not guaranteed to flow from these destructive events. That’s because climate attention is quite short-lived, and not always as intense as one might hope. </p>
<p>We believe our research can help activists and policymakers capitalise on the increased intensity and duration of public interest in climate change following extreme events and translate that attention into a sustained appetite for climate policy action. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fear-and-wonder-podcast-how-scientists-attribute-extreme-weather-events-to-climate-change-203559">Fear and Wonder podcast: how scientists attribute extreme weather events to climate change</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Crellin receives funding from Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert MacNeil does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Public interest in climate change and global warming peaks after bushfires and lasts for months, research reveals. But Australians do not respond to storms and floods in the same way.Christopher Crellin, PhD Student / FNRS Aspirant, Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain)Robert MacNeil, Lecturer in Environmental Politics, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2092622023-07-16T09:58:13Z2023-07-16T09:58:13ZSouth Africa’s public protector has a vital watchdog role. Researcher offers tips on how the selection process can be improved<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536831/original/file-20230711-23-s0daqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane at her impeachment hearing in Cape Town.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Lombard/Gallo Images via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 made it necessary to establish several institutions to underpin the country’s new constitutional democracy.</p>
<p>The office of the public protector was one of them. It was established in 1995 to exercise oversight over governmental power. The constitution grants the public protector autonomy to <a href="https://www.oxford.co.za/book/9780195991376-south-african-constitutional-law-in-context">investigate</a> improper government conduct and maladministration. The aim is to enhance government accountability and responsibility, thus safeguarding the public interest. </p>
<p>The term of the third incumbent, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who was appointed in 2016, has been mired in <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-public-protectors-job-is-to-make-sure-people-stick-to-the-law-not-to-change-it-79931">controversy</a>. She has faced serious criticism and calls for her removal amid allegations of <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-07-23-now-that-the-concourt-has-found-the-public-protector-both-dishonest-and-incompetent-will-parliament-axe-her/">dishonesty and incompetence</a>. She was suspended on 9 June 2022 and is the subject of an <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/36572/">impeachment inquiry</a>. </p>
<p>It’s not the first time the office has been caught up in controversy. Lawrence Mushwana, the second public protector (2002-2009), was <a href="https://www.corruptionwatch.org.za/sas-public-protectors-the-legacies-part-two/">perceived</a> by some as biased towards the governing African National Congress. This raised doubts in some quarters about the institution’s independence and impartiality.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/storm-around-south-africas-public-protector-shows-robustness-not-a-crisis-120902">Storm around South Africa's public protector shows robustness, not a crisis</a>
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<p>The controversies and their impacts show how important it is to make the right appointment to the position. </p>
<p>I have been teaching and <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/EJC-1a7adf489e">conducting research</a> in organisational psychology and theory for the past decade. My diverse research interests in the areas of professional employee recruitment and selection have provided me with valuable insights into best practices.</p>
<p>In a joint <a href="https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/1207">2021 study</a> we examined the recruitment and selection process of South Africa’s <a href="https://www.pprotect.org/">public protector</a>. In our view the <a href="https://www.parliament.gov.za/press-releases/media-statement-committee-nominate-next-public-protector-calls-nominations-or-applications">process</a> is deeply flawed. It needs an overhaul to ensure it is transparent, professional and free from political bias. </p>
<p>In particular, enlisting the expertise of professionals would make the recruitment and selection process more robust, transparent and fair. </p>
<p>Our analysis highlights the need for a comprehensive approach to the process. It must involve multiple stakeholders and expertise from fields such as law, human resources, and work or organisational psychology.</p>
<p>Fixing the flaws will improve competence and public trust in the public protector’s office.</p>
<h2>The public protector</h2>
<p>The public protector is one of six institutions created by <a href="https://openbooks.uct.ac.za/uct/catalog/download/25/32/1275?inline=1">Chapter 9</a> of the South African constitution. The office investigates improper conduct in state affairs and public administration.</p>
<p>It is <a href="https://constitutionallawofsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Chap24A.pdf">entrusted</a> with monitoring state officials and agencies to promote an effective, ethical and accountable public service. The office plays a vital “<a href="https://constitutionallawofsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Chap24A.pdf">government watchdog</a>” role in safeguarding the public interest.</p>
<p>Given the public protector’s crucial role in combating corruption and maladministration, the selection of a <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/22629/">“fit and proper”</a> candidate is paramount. Making the <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/full/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1207">right appointment is key</a> for the institution’s effectiveness and integrity.</p>
<h2>Flaws in the recruitment process</h2>
<p>The constitution <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1207">outlines</a> the appointment procedures for and functions of the public protector. But it lacks specific guidelines for the recruitment and selection of a suitable candidate. This raises concerns about the fairness of the process and potential political influence. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1207">Public Protector Act, 1994</a> also outlines the requirements for appointment. But it too does not provide a clear definition of what constitutes a “fit and proper” person for the role. It lists qualifications such as legal expertise, administrative knowledge and cumulative experience of 10 years in the administration of justice, public administration or public finance.</p>
<p>It doesn’t explain why it emphasises 10 years of experience, or why these specific criteria are important. </p>
<p>The act does not promote transparency in the appointment process. Instead of following a professional recruitment and selection approach, it leaves this to a committee of the national assembly. The committee consists of representatives of various political parties. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ghanas-new-chief-justice-gertrude-tokornoo-faces-challenges-but-could-help-transform-the-countrys-courts-208595">Ghana's new chief justice: Gertrude Tokornoo faces challenges, but could help transform the country's courts</a>
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<p>Filling the committee with politicians compromises the professional ethics of recruitment and selection. The committee lacks qualifications in human resources or recruitment. It has no training on the process. Yet, it recommends a candidate to be appointed by the president.</p>
<p>The committee has no clear guidelines or criteria for choosing a fit and proper person for the position. It relies on interviews and personal judgments, leaving room for bias and subjective decision making. The committee does not provide its rationale for the qualities considered during the shortlisting of candidates. </p>
<h2>What needs to happen</h2>
<p>Clear guidelines, competencies and expert input should be established so that a qualified and suitable candidate is appointed for this important role.</p>
<p>The recruitment process should adhere to best practices in human resources. It should use scientific methods to assess candidates’ knowledge, skills and abilities. </p>
<p>Human resources experts can provide insights and expertise in developing the selection criteria, based on job analysis and competency frameworks. They can help develop standardised methods of assessment, including competency-based behavioural assessments. These can be used to evaluate candidates’ qualifications, integrity, reliability, diligence and other required characteristics.</p>
<p>Work or organisational psychology experts would use structured interviews, comprehensive reference checks, and blind or anonymous assessments.</p>
<h2>Effectiveness and integrity</h2>
<p>The recruitment and selection process for a new public protector <a href="https://www.parliament.gov.za/press-releases/media-statement-committee-nominate-next-public-protector-calls-nominations-or-applications">started in May</a>. The current incumbent’s term expires in October. The public protector is appointed for a non-renewable seven-year term. </p>
<p>The appointment directly affects the country’s governance and accountability of public officials. </p>
<p>Selection of unsuitable candidates compromises the effectiveness and integrity of the office. </p>
<p>Our research highlights the urgency of addressing these procedural issues so that the public protector can fulfil its role of protecting the public interest, promoting transparency and upholding democratic principles.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209262/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandiso Bazana does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Past controversies and their impacts show how important it is to make the right appointment to the position.Sandiso Bazana, PhD Candidate/Research & Teaching Assistant, Grenoble Ecole de Management/Lecturer in Organisational Psychology, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1947972022-11-28T15:04:53Z2022-11-28T15:04:53ZThe Emergencies Act inquiry revealed a disturbing disregard of the public interest<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497418/original/file-20221125-14071-qoygyy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C5000%2C3248&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears as a witness on the final day of the Public Order Emergency Commission hearings in Ottawa
on Nov. 25, 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://publicorderemergencycommission.ca/">Public Order Emergency Commission</a> into the use of the Emergency Act has ended. The mandated hearings were looking into whether invoking the act was justified to end the <a href="https://theconversation.com/emergencies-act-revoked-after-10-days-of-police-clampdowns-helped-end-blockades-177616">so-called freedom convoy protest in Ottawa</a> in February 2022 — and they raised serious questions about protecting the public interest.</p>
<p>Where was the Ottawa Police Services Board when the occupation of the city dragged on for weeks? What were the terms of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/sloly-ottawa-resigns-behaviour-leadership-1.6352295">Peter Sloly’s resignation as Ottawa police chief</a>? Did both the police force’s management and the board responsible for overseeing the force fail?</p>
<p>The commission hearings were astonishing in what they revealed about how the public interest was seemingly disregarded throughout the crisis, illuminating serious governance issues.</p>
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<img alt="A protest drinks Gatorade from a fuel container with the Peace Tower in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497274/original/file-20221124-18-r67660.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497274/original/file-20221124-18-r67660.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497274/original/file-20221124-18-r67660.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497274/original/file-20221124-18-r67660.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497274/original/file-20221124-18-r67660.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497274/original/file-20221124-18-r67660.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497274/original/file-20221124-18-r67660.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A protester drinks red Gatorade from a fuel container as a joke for onlookers during the ‘freedom convoy’ protest in Ottawa in February 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span>
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<h2>Board failed to do its job</h2>
<p>When there is a deficit or gap in governance, organizational dysfunction often follows, increasing costs and causing reputational damage as the dysfunction continues. </p>
<p>It shouldn’t be that way. We cannot rely on a commission of inquiry — after the fact — to fix the past nor on government oversight to fix things as they break down. That’s the job of <a href="https://www.caaf-fcar.ca/en/oversight-concepts-and-context/oversight-bodies-and-functions/the-hierarchy-of-oversight-responsibilities">boards with oversight authority and responsibility</a>. </p>
<p>S&P Global research states that “<a href="https://www.spglobal.com/en/research-insights/articles/what-is-the-g-in-esg">understanding governance risks and opportunities in decision-making is critical, as poor corporate governance practices have stood at the core of some of the biggest corporate scandals</a>.” </p>
<p>In corporate governance, <a href="https://www.oecd.org/gov/ethics/recommendation-public-integrity/">there is supposed to be oversight over all executives by watchdog bodies or regulatory enforcement agencies</a>. No executive — whether it’s a CEO, board director or president — has a free rein with no accountability. Any board is supposed to be accountable to those who elected it and to consider the interests of all stakeholders. </p>
<p>In the case of the prolonged trucker protest on Parliament Hill, the Ottawa Police Services Board was responsible for overseeing the actions of the Ottawa police force and its chief, Peter Sloly.</p>
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<img alt="A man in a dark blue suit speaks into a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497271/original/file-20221124-12-5v5qv9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497271/original/file-20221124-12-5v5qv9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497271/original/file-20221124-12-5v5qv9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497271/original/file-20221124-12-5v5qv9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497271/original/file-20221124-12-5v5qv9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497271/original/file-20221124-12-5v5qv9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497271/original/file-20221124-12-5v5qv9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Former Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly appears as a witness at the Public Order Emergency Commission in Ottawa in October 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
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<h2>Must act honestly, in good faith</h2>
<p>Each Ottawa Police Services Board member has a fiduciary duty to act honestly and in good faith, while exercising a high standard of care that <a href="https://www.ottawapolice.ca/en/about-us/Professional-Standards-Section.aspx">involves oversight responsibility and accountability</a>. This begs the question: did the Ottawa Police Services Board lack the will to get fully involved? </p>
<p>While the board cannot and should not be involved in operational decisions, it must oversee the performance of the entire police force. It must do more than hire and fire the police chief. </p>
<p>What oversight did the Ottawa Police Services Board provide during the trucker protest crisis so that it might have been avoided in the first place — and so that the public interest was prioritized?</p>
<p>There’s considerable confusion about the role, responsibilities and accountability of the board. Currently, its mission statement says board members must “<a href="https://ottawapoliceboard.ca/opsb-cspo/about-board.html#who">represent community interests and are accountable to the Ministry of Community Safety & Correctional Services and the Ontario Civilian Police Commission located in Toronto</a>.”</p>
<p>This suggests it could be the City of Ottawa, possibly City Council, that’s accountable to Ottawa taxpayers and not the Ottawa Police Services Board. It’s not clear from the board’s selection process whether it’s a public agency with reporting responsibility to the province or to the people of Ottawa. </p>
<p>The mission statement does clearly state, however, that “the Chief of Police is responsible for administering the Police Service and overseeing its operation in accordance with the objectives, priorities and policies established by the Board.”</p>
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<img alt="A grey-haired man with a beard speaks into a microphone and is seen in profile." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497263/original/file-20221124-14-idgeki.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497263/original/file-20221124-14-idgeki.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497263/original/file-20221124-14-idgeki.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497263/original/file-20221124-14-idgeki.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497263/original/file-20221124-14-idgeki.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497263/original/file-20221124-14-idgeki.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497263/original/file-20221124-14-idgeki.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Eli El-Chantiry, chair of the Ottawa Police Services Board, speaks to reporters during a news conference in Ottawa in the midst of the trucker protest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston</span></span>
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<h2>Sloly’s resignation</h2>
<p>But there was no transparency about <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/sloly-was-left-hanging-out-to-dry-as-ottawa-police-struggled-to-control-occupation-former-board-chair-says">the terms of Sloly’s resignation</a> as well as <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/eric-stubbs-named-new-ottawa-police-chief">the recruitment of a new police chief without an open competition for the job</a>.</p>
<p>It’s unknown who, apart from members of the Ottawa Police Services Board, took part in these firing and hiring decisions. A quick media scan turns up little coverage raising questions about this lack of information.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A man speaks standing in front of a insignia that makes it look as though he has a crown on his head." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497267/original/file-20221124-3308-umhge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497267/original/file-20221124-3308-umhge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497267/original/file-20221124-3308-umhge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497267/original/file-20221124-3308-umhge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497267/original/file-20221124-3308-umhge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497267/original/file-20221124-3308-umhge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497267/original/file-20221124-3308-umhge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Eric Stubbs, seen here when he was with the RCMP in British Columbia, is the new Ottawa police chief.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Sloly held the job for less than two years on a five-year contract with the City of Ottawa. It’s unknown whether he was paid out for the full five-year term and if the use of taxpayer dollars, if so, was above board.</p>
<p><a href="https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ottawa-police-chief-peter-sloly-resigns-amid-trucker-protests-1.5782036">While that absence of information might be due to confidentiality or legal reasons</a>, those circumstances should have been made clear to the public in such a high-profile case.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/uday-jaswal-negotiations-settlement-ottawa-police-1.6416408">There was an equal dearth of information about the resignation of the former deputy police chief, Uday Jaswal</a>, in February 2022. He was nearly two years into a suspension over a sexual harassment charge. </p>
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<h2>Principles of good governance needed</h2>
<p>The Ottawa Police Services Board cannot and should not operate in secret but in the public interest, regardless of whether the public approves of its decisions. Embarrassment is not an excuse for the absence of disclosure. </p>
<p>Executive compensation disclosure is mandatory for public companies. Regulators and public agencies should not have a lower standard of disclosure and accountability than any other organization. Quite the opposite. </p>
<p>In the public sector especially, adherence to governance standards should always be the best possible, but all too often the opposite is true. </p>
<p>Principles of good governance, including accountability and transparency, must apply to all organizations, both private and public — including the Ottawa Police Services Board and any other body that oversees organizations that are so critical to public well-being.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194797/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Ottawa Police Services Board has been operating in secret in the aftermath of the so-called freedom convoy protest. It must cease, regardless of whether the public approves of its decisions.Eric Champagne, Professeur agrégé, École d'études politique, Directeur, Centre d'études en gouvernance / Associate professor, School of Political Studies, Director, Centre on Governance, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaAlex Beraskow, Affiliated Researcher, Centre on Governance, University of Ottawa, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1902762022-09-08T15:35:10Z2022-09-08T15:35:10ZSouth Africa’s Jacob Zuma is taking a top reporter to court. The verdict could affect journalists’ rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483516/original/file-20220908-9455-64ycem.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former South African president Jacob Zuma appearing in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in 2020 on charges of corruption.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Kim Ludbrook/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South African journalism organisations this week <a href="https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/3191443/sanef-zuma-private-prosecution-media-freedom/">rallied around</a> well-known journalist Karyn Maughan when former president Jacob Zuma initiated <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/SouthAfrica/News/breaking-zuma-charges-downer-news24-journalist-in-private-prosecution-over-medical-records-20220906">a private prosecution against her</a>.</p>
<p>Zuma faces <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/jacob-zuma-corruption-charges-south-africa-president-arms-deal-a8291826.html">16 counts of corruption</a> for taking a monthly payment of US$34,000 from French arms firm Thales while he was deputy president from 1999 and later president from 2009 to 2018. Thales was involved in South Africa’s massive arms purchase deal during that period.</p>
<p>Zuma had originally <a href="https://mg.co.za/news/2022-09-06-npa-supports-billy-downer-as-zuma-serves-summons/">laid charges</a> against the prosecutor in his corruption case, Billy Downer, for giving a medical certificate from the investigation to Maughan. When the police declined to prosecute Downer, Zuma initiated a case against both him and Maughan for disclosing the information.</p>
<p>Zuma’s supporters jumped on Maughan <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/ntsiki-slams-racist-journo-karyn-maughan-amid-zuma-legal-saga/ar-AA11AzXa?li=BBqfP3n">on social media</a>, lashing her – with some racist and misogynist language - for allegedly exposing Zuma’s medical records. </p>
<p>But the South African National Editors’ Forum <a href="https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/3191443/sanef-zuma-private-prosecution-media-freedom/">expressed</a> “disgust” at the serving of summons on Maughan. </p>
<p>It was “a clear case of intimidation solely intended to silence Maughan” as
the information “was of public record and not confidential”.</p>
<p>My own organisation, the Campaign for Free Expression, <a href="https://www.biznews.com/undictated/2022/09/07/karyn-maughan-private-prosecution">said</a> Zuma had “a pattern
of taking legal action against his media critics in an attempt to stifle scrutiny and criticism and to divert attention from and delay his own prosecution.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It should be seen for what it is: an attempt to make it risky for journalists to scrutinise him, and discourage critical journalism.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Maughan’s case will be interesting and important, and is likely to go all the way to the Constitutional Court. It will test a journalist’s right to publish court material in the public interest.</p>
<p>What is at stake is more than her innocence or guilt: it is whether South Africans have an open court in which reporters can gather information, canvass all the parties and report freely on proceedings. And whether we can have swift justice and not allow for endless delays.</p>
<h2>What the law says</h2>
<p>The law is clear: it is illegal to disclose information that the prosecutor has as part of the investigation without permission of the office of the National Director of Public Prosecutions. It appears that Downer, without the necessary permission, told his colleagues to give the documents to Maughan under embargo, as they were due to be tabled in court and become part of the public record.</p>
<p>Maughan argues that she only published them after they were tabled in court, that neither party had applied for them to be sealed and there was nothing particularly sensitive about them. It was only a medical certificate, not his private records. </p>
<p>What she was doing was routine court reporting: getting information from the parties to the dispute, and publishing them in the public interest.</p>
<p>Why then has it caused such a rumpus? It is because of Zuma’s long use of what
has been called a Stalingrad defence: slow down proceedings and wear down the
other side by appealing every unfavourable ruling and using whatever other means possible to delay proceedings and divert attention from the core case.
So far, this has worked in his favour. Started in 2005, the case is still in its early stages. Now he is trying to have prosecutor Downer dismissed and is lashing out at the media at the same time.</p>
<p>But the courts and much of the public have grown tired of it. His supporters cheer him on, portraying him as a hapless victim of persecution and political conspiracy. And the courts under close scrutiny have to be meticulous to ensure that his rights are respected, even when this causes undue delay.</p>
<p>Zuma is trying to disrupt the process and to harass and intimidate prosecutors and journalists. He did not raise the matter with the media house that published her work, nor did he take her to the Press Council, the body that oversees journalism ethics.</p>
<p>He chose to label her a criminal who belongs in prison. A private prosecution against a journalist covering a person’s court case is unheard of in South Africa.</p>
<p>He is attempting to turn the contestation of a court hearing into an all-out war and chill those who pursue justice against him. He is trying to put the justice system and the media on trial, rather than himself.</p>
<p>The action against Maughan says more about Zuma and his lawyers than it does
about Maughan. It shows a contempt for democratic and court processes, as well as for journalists and their role in ensuring court cases are public, open events.</p>
<p>It demonstrates his willingness to attack whoever is in his way in his attempt to delay and divert attention from his own case. It reveals his capacity – Trump-like – to portray himself as the constant victim of conspiracies. That is why the community of journalists has rallied to Maughan’s defence. </p>
<p>The fight is not just to protect her, but to defend an open justice system, in which reporters play a key role.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190276/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anton Harber is a member of the SA National Editors' Forum (Sanef) and executive director of the Campaign for Free Expression.</span></em></p>Former South African president Zuma is trying to turn the contestation of a court hearing into an all-out war and chill those who pursue justice against him.Anton Harber, Caxton Professor of Journalism, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1834412022-05-19T20:02:33Z2022-05-19T20:02:33Z5 charts show how trust in Australia’s leaders and institutions has collapsed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464216/original/file-20220519-21-7e2k0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4997%2C2472&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whatever the result of the 2022 election, one thing is clear: many Australians are losing faith that their social institutions serve their interests. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.australianleadershipindex.org/leadership-for-the-greater-good-a-national-conversation-about-leadership-in-australia/">annual survey</a> of 4,000 Australians about leadership for the greater good shows the gulf between what the community expects and what they perceive.</p>
<p>Leaders and institutions are now widely seen as more concerned with their own interests, not the public interest. </p>
<h2>The rise and fall of leadership for the good</h2>
<p>We’ve been tracking public perceptions of leadership and integrity since 2018 to compile the <a href="https://www.australianleadershipindex.org/">Australian Leadership Index</a>. It covers four major institutional sectors – the government, the public sector, private enterprise, and the non-government sector.</p>
<p>In 2020, with the pandemic, public perceptions of leadership across these sectors rose. In 2021, however, three sectors have declined significantly. Only the public sector has sustained favourable perceptions it serves the public interest, thanks largely to the performance of public health institutions throughout the pandemic. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="W3H04" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/W3H04/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<h2>Federal government has fallen furthest</h2>
<p>The steepest falls in perceptions of leadership have been for the federal government. Its index score – a measure of overall leadership perceptions – fell from from a high of +17 in late 2020 to -15 in late 2021. </p>
<p>In essence, this score means most people by the end of last year didn’t believe the government was committed to the public interest or showed leadership for the public good. That’s a stunning shift from generally positive public perceptions in 2020.</p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="jsdmQ" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/jsdmQ/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<h2>Faith in public integrity has collapsed</h2>
<p>The steep decline in perceptions of the federal government’s leadership has been matched by the collapse of perceptions of public integrity. </p>
<p>As outlined by South Australia’s <a href="https://www.icac.sa.gov.au/newsletter/public-integrity-is-great-but-what-is-it">Independent Commission Against Corruption</a>, public integrity comprises several core themes: public trust, public interest, morality, impartiality, transparency and accountability. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/perceptions-of-corruption-are-growing-in-australia-and-its-costing-the-economy-176562">Perceptions of corruption are growing in Australia, and it's costing the economy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Perceptions of government integrity fell sharply in 2021 across indicators such as morality and ethics, transparency and accountability. Expectations of public integrity also increased. </p>
<p>The following chart shows public perceptions and expectations of the federal government’s morality and ethics since Scott Morrison became prime minister in August 2018. It is indicative of the trends observed for all other indicators of government integrity.</p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="I9BgT" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/I9BgT/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>Given the corrosive effects of declining public trust in the institutions of democracy, reversing these perceptions should be a priority for whichever party is in government.</p>
<h2>Most want environmental action</h2>
<p>Action on environment and climate are becoming key drivers of public perceptions of institutional leadership across all sectors. </p>
<p>The following graph shows how institutions across all sectors perform in terms of creating positive environmental outcomes and the influence of their environmental performance on public perceptions of their leadership. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464218/original/file-20220519-14-zwgfhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Australian Leadership Index perceptions of envrionmental leadership" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464218/original/file-20220519-14-zwgfhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464218/original/file-20220519-14-zwgfhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464218/original/file-20220519-14-zwgfhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464218/original/file-20220519-14-zwgfhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464218/original/file-20220519-14-zwgfhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464218/original/file-20220519-14-zwgfhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464218/original/file-20220519-14-zwgfhn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Australian Leadership Index</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Our results show national and multinational businesses, trade unions and the federal government are judged as very poor environmental performers. By contrast, small and medium enterprises, charities, education institutions and charities are perceived to be performing strongly.</p>
<h2>Health workers still heroes</h2>
<p>Since the Australian Leadership Index started collecting data in 2018, the public health sector has consistently rated positively. In 2020 these perceptions spiked even higher. They remained high throughout 2021.</p>
<p>Of all the institutions the index measures, only charities are on par in terms of perceived leadership for the public good. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="SWSxm" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/SWSxm/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<h2>Ideas of leadership have changed</h2>
<p>Perceptions of what leadership for the greater good looks like appear to have shifted between 2020 and 2021. </p>
<p>In 2020, the focus was on security, protection and institutional responsiveness to the needs of society (health care, financial support and so on). In 2021, there was a much greater concern for the processes and principles that inform and govern the actions of authorities and institutions. </p>
<p>The principles of public integrity – morality and ethics, transparency, accountability and concern for the public interest – now trump security in community assessments of leadership for the greater good.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/equality-and-fairness-vaccines-against-this-pandemic-of-mistrust-160100">Equality and fairness: vaccines against this pandemic of mistrust</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is timely to reflect on the state of our social institutions and to have a national conversation about what our institutions could or should look like to promote flourishing and help rather than harm the public good. </p>
<p>Whoever forms government next week would do well to take note of community aspirations and expectations for social institutions that serve the interests of the many, not the few.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183441/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Wilson receives philanthropic funding for the Australian Leadership Index.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vlad Demsar receives philanthropic funding for the Australian Leadership Index.</span></em></p>Whoever forms Australia’s next government must work to reverse declining public trust in our institutions and leaders.Samuel Wilson, Associate Professor of Leadership, Swinburne University of TechnologyMelissa A. Wheeler, Senior Lecturer, Department of Management and Marketing, Swinburne University of TechnologyVlad Demsar, Lecturer of Marketing, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1730572021-12-05T16:49:21Z2021-12-05T16:49:21ZHow dual loyalties created an ethics problem for Chris Cuomo and CNN<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435698/original/file-20211205-15-1cmfn4t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C2986%2C2097&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, left, and his brother, former CNN anchor, Chris Cuomo.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CuomoSexualHarassment/cb27280f4784432abd15d6afc3a44b22/photo?Query=Chris%20Cuomo&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=280&currentItemNo=3">(Mike Groll/Office of Governor of Andrew M. Cuomo via AP, left, and Evan Agostini/Invision/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>CNN anchor Chris Cuomo <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/03/so-now-chris-cuomo-cant-cover-brother-andrew-cuomo-for-cnn">conceded</a> in March, 2021 that he could not, ethically, cover the sexual harassment allegations against his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The family ties were simply too strong for him to do so independently. </p>
<p>But afterwards, Chris provided behind-the-scenes counsel to his brother and his brother’s team. By August, 2021, when Andrew <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Resignation_of_Andrew_Cuomo,_2021">resigned</a> in the wake of the scandal, there were <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/biden-calls-andrew-cuomo-resign-he-s-not-only-cuomo-n1275856">calls</a> for Chris to step down from his job as well because the New York attorney general’s initial report <a href="https://twitter.com/ShaneGoldmacher/status/1422593799419801603">revealed</a> that he had helped draft a statement for his brother in February. As the adage has it, no one can serve two masters. The CNN anchor who should have been serving the public was secretly putting family loyalty first by helping his brother navigate a political and public relations disaster.</p>
<p>And now CNN has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/04/business/media/chris-cuomo-fired-cnn.html">fired</a> Cuomo. The firing happened on Dec. 4, less than a week after the attorney general’s office <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2021/additional-transcripts-exhibits-and-videos-independent-investigation-sexual">released</a> pages of transcripts, exhibits and videos from its investigation into sexual harassment allegations against Andrew Cuomo. The documents detailed the extensive help Chris Cuomo had been providing to his brother for months. </p>
<p>Viewers of CNN would have known about the cozy familial relationship between the two. In 2020, when Andrew Cuomo was still governor of New York, Chris teamed up with his brother to banter on the cable network about how the state was handling the pandemic. The segments were <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/567288-a-look-back-at-the-rise-and-spectacular-fall-of-the-cuomo-brothers">wildly popular</a>. </p>
<p>Although they <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/cnns-cuomo-no-no/612103/">raised eyebrows</a> in media ethics circles because Chris Cuomo appeared to be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/business/media/brothers-cuomo-andrew-chris.html">violating</a> fundamental norms of journalistic independence. CNN <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/01/chris-cuomo-cnn-routine-brother-undermined-network">justified</a> its exception to a conflict of interest rule imposed since 2013 prohibiting the anchor from covering his brother, stating, “Chris speaking with his brother about the challenges of what millions of American families were struggling with was of significant human interest.” </p>
<p>And, incidentally, the banter was <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2021-08-03/chris-cuomo-hosts-his-cnn-show-but-is-silent-on-sex-harassment-charges-against-his-brother">great for ratings</a>. But the sexual harassment scandal that erupted in late 2020 put an end to all that.</p>
<p>But it did not end the behind-the-scenes conflict. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435699/original/file-20211205-15-u24iuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chris Cuomo on a city sidewalk, talking into a microphone for a news report." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435699/original/file-20211205-15-u24iuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435699/original/file-20211205-15-u24iuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435699/original/file-20211205-15-u24iuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435699/original/file-20211205-15-u24iuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435699/original/file-20211205-15-u24iuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435699/original/file-20211205-15-u24iuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435699/original/file-20211205-15-u24iuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chris Cuomo during on air report in front of the Time Warner Building, where police removed an explosive device Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018, in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CuomoSexualHarassment/d607956508e848458c5685d8dcb95e89/photo?Query=CNN%20Chris%20Cuomo&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=92&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Kevin Hagen</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Public interest above self-interest</h2>
<p>As Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel – former journalists and now ethics scholars and media watchdogs – have <a href="https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/">written</a>, “[Journalists] must strive to put the public interest – and the truth – above their own self-interest or assumptions.”</p>
<p>Journalists’ fundamental role in democracy is to <a href="https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp">hold those in power, especially those in government, accountable</a>. But if they have close relationships with those in power, their independence, or at least the perception of it, can be compromised. <a href="https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/">Independence coupled with accountability and transparency underpin the public’s trust</a> in journalists. </p>
<p>But goodwill towards Chris Cuomo, who the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2021/08/13/cuomo-cnn-return/">reported</a> was “known for his intense loyalty to the network, its employees and their families,” along with the <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/cnn-s-cuomo-dilemma-a-star-anchor-with-a-brother-in-trouble-1.4640489">unwavering support</a> of CNN President Jeff Zucker, helped Cuomo keep his job. </p>
<p>He stayed in it until the Nov. 29 document dump disclosed just how closely the CNN anchor had helped his brother Andrew’s team frame and mount a defense to the accusations. Among the offers Chris made: he would <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/chris-cuomo-offered-his-sources-learn-if-more-women-would-accuse-brother-harassment-1654108">work his own journalistic sources</a> to investigate the credibility of the women who alleged harassment or assault.</p>
<p>At that point, CNN <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/30/business/media/chris-cuomo-suspended-cnn.html">suspended</a> Cuomo “indefinitely.”</p>
<p>“When Chris admitted to us that he had offered advice to his brother’s staff, he broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly,” CNN said in a <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/media/583693-cnn-suspends-chris-cuomo-indefinitely">statement</a>. “But we also appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second.”</p>
<p>Cuomo’s firing followed four days later.</p>
<h2>‘Accountable and transparent’</h2>
<p>Was it ethical for the anchor to continue to advise his brother while representing to his viewers that he was keeping his relationship at arm’s length? Should he even have participated in what a Donald Trump campaign spokesman called “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/02/19/cnns-chris-cuomo-can-no-longer-interview-brother-gov-andrew-cuomo/4504315001/">the Cuomo Brothers Comedy Hour</a>” at the beginning of the pandemic?</p>
<p>Journalists’ associations have developed ethical codes and guidelines that address this situation. </p>
<p>One of the <a href="https://www.spj.org/spjhistory.asp">oldest</a> and best known is the <a href="https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp">Code of Ethics</a> of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). <a href="https://www.npr.org/ethics">News organizations</a> also have their own ethics rules and <a href="https://cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct/">post them</a> online so that the public can read them. Television networks frequently assign ethics enforcement to their “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140111003232/http://www.museum.tv/eotv/standardsand.htm">Standards and Practices</a>” departments. </p>
<p>These codes set out the ethical standards for a news operation.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435701/original/file-20211205-15-ab3741.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics, printed on one page." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435701/original/file-20211205-15-ab3741.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435701/original/file-20211205-15-ab3741.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435701/original/file-20211205-15-ab3741.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435701/original/file-20211205-15-ab3741.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435701/original/file-20211205-15-ab3741.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=975&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435701/original/file-20211205-15-ab3741.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=975&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435701/original/file-20211205-15-ab3741.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=975&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, which says ‘An ethical journalist acts with integrity.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.spj.org/pdf/spj-code-of-ethics.pdf">Society of Professional Journalists</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the word “code” is a misnomer. Although news organizations are free to enforce their provisions on their own staff, they are not intended to create <a href="https://cpj.org/2021/08/algeria-revokes-accreditation-of-saudi-channel-al-arabiya-over-allegedly-spreading-misinformation/">legal obligations</a> to anyone else, as with licensed professions such as <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/professional_responsibility/2011-12_disc_agency_directory.pdf">law</a> and <a href="https://www.fsmb.org/contact-a-state-medical-board">medicine</a>. The SPJ Code is explicit about this, emphasizing that its code is “not, nor can it be under the First Amendment, legally enforceable.” </p>
<p>It does, however, emphasize that conflicts of interest must be avoided, or at the very least, disclosed, to maintain independence and transparency. </p>
<p>CNN has acknowledged that Chris Cuomo “broke our rules.” But the rules aren’t posted on CNN’s <a href="https://www.cnn.com/">website</a>. In fact, CNN has fought to keep them <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2018/05/07/cnn-fights-to-keep-internal-editorial-guidelines-under-wraps-why/">secret</a>. </p>
<p>In August, the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2021/08/13/cuomo-cnn-return/">quoted</a> from a leaked copy of the network’s “News Standards & Practices Policy Guide,” reporting that “the document mandates that ‘CNN employees should avoid any real obligation or appearance of any obligation to any interest that he/she may be covering or reporting on,’ and ‘should avoid conflicts between personal interests and the interest of the company or even the appearance of such conflicts.’” </p>
<p>That sounds about right, but did CNN enforce those rules with Chris Cuomo? How could the anchor avoid conflicts of interest while pitching softball questions to his brother during the pandemic, much less by providing behind-the-scenes advice on how to deal with the sexual harassment scandal? </p>
<p>Many <a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-arts-and-entertainment-new-york-andrew-cuomo-chris-cuomo-ec26694560241c5bc8c1f31a362bb29d">media commentators</a> say that he couldn’t, and now, CNN seems to agree.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435702/original/file-20211205-19-18m421a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A middle-aged woman in white shirt, black sweater and with light brown hair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435702/original/file-20211205-19-18m421a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435702/original/file-20211205-19-18m421a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435702/original/file-20211205-19-18m421a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435702/original/file-20211205-19-18m421a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435702/original/file-20211205-19-18m421a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435702/original/file-20211205-19-18m421a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435702/original/file-20211205-19-18m421a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Media columnist Margaret Sullivan said of Cuomo, ‘You don’t abuse your position in journalism…for personal or familial gain.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/margaret-sullivan-media-columnist-the-washington-post-via-news-photo/1206570662?adppopup=true">Eric Hanson for The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fool me once</h2>
<p>Was it unrealistic to expect the Cuomo brothers not to confer in times of crisis? Some news consumers think so, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/30/business/media/chris-cuomo-suspended-cnn.html">reader comments</a> on a Nov. 30 New York Times story contended: “One of the biggest draws to CNN is Chris Cuomo & his personalized brotherly banter & friendship with Don Lemon. He reflects what’s right in America. Family & Loyalty.”</p>
<p>Those readers are right that it is a question of loyalty. But they are answering the question differently than many journalists would. </p>
<p>Kovach and Rosenstiel have <a href="https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/">written</a> that journalists’ “first loyalty is to citizens,” and in their book <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/671513/the-elements-of-journalism-revised-and-updated-4th-edition-by-bill-kovach-and-tom-rosenstiel/">The Elements of Journalism</a> call it an “implied covenant” with the audience. </p>
<p>As columnist Margaret Sullivan <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/chris-cuomo-journalism-ethics-sullivan/2021/12/01/eddae130-52ad-11ec-9267-17ae3bde2f26_story.html">argued</a> in the Washington Post, “You don’t abuse your position in journalism — whether at a weekly newspaper or a major network — for personal or familial gain.” </p>
<p>Conflicts of interest violate that covenant and undermine public confidence in media independence. Some conflicts of interest are such a problem that no amount of disclosure or disclaimers can cure them. CNN has apparently <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/04/media/cnn-fires-chris-cuomo/index.html">concluded</a> that Chris Cuomo’s is one of them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173057/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane E Kirtley serves on the board of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Foundation, and was a member of the SPJ National Ethics Committee for several years. She reviewed Minnesota Public Radio's News Ethics Guidelines <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/ethics">https://www.mprnews.org/ethics</a> prior to adoption, and has written book chapters and articles on media ethics for a variety of publications. She is co-author of a textbook, Media Ethics Today: Issues, Analysis, Solutions (Cognella 2016).</span></em></p>A journalist’s role is to serve the public interest. But CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, by helping his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo during a scandal, put personal interests above the public’s.Jane E. Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law, University of MinnesotaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1681342021-09-23T14:11:27Z2021-09-23T14:11:27ZWhistleblowers are key to fighting corruption in South Africa. It shouldn’t be at their peril<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421871/original/file-20210917-23-dv2093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Numerous corruption scandals have been reported in South Africa in recent times. The extent of corruption in the country has been laid bare at the judicial commission probing allegations of <a href="https://www.statecapture.org.za/">state capture</a> over the past three years. Corruption can impede a country’s economic growth, and undermine democratic principles, stability and trust. </p>
<p>Whistle-blowing is one of the mechanisms used to deter corruption. It plays a role in encouraging accountability, transparency and high standards of governance in both the private sector and public institutions. Whistleblowers help combat criminal conduct and should thus be afforded protection by the state. But South Africa’s system is flawed. </p>
<p>Recently, the country was shocked by the <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/babita-deokarans-murder-will-deter-whistleblowers-from-speaking-out-says-goodson-20210826">murder</a> of a woman who had exposed corruption in <a href="https://www.unisa.ac.za/static/corporate_web/Content/News%20&%20Media/Articles/Documents/Covid-19%20Personal%20Protective%20Equipment%20(PPE)%20corruption%20scandals.pdf">the procurement</a> of COVID-19 personal protective equipment. </p>
<p>As an academic, I’ve done work on the importance of whistleblowers in general, and on the possibility of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292689589_The_Protected_Disclosures_Act_26_of_2000_the_Companies_Act_71_of_2008_and_the_Competition_Act_89_of_1998_with_regard_to_whistle-blowing_protection_Is_there_a_link">paying incentives to people who blow the whistle on tax evasion</a>.</p>
<p>This is one way in which the role of whistleblowers could be elevated. There are others too, such as harnessing special courts to try cases. For example I support calls for physical security to be provided to whistleblowers and their families. I also believe that whistle-blowing should be made national strategic priority. This would enable the country develop an <a href="http://www.africanplatform.org/fileadmin/Content/PDF/Resources/Publications/HeroesUnderFire.pdf">environment for transparency</a> and accountability. </p>
<h2>Protection of whistleblowers</h2>
<p>South Africa has seen a fair number of whistleblowers raising the alarm on irregularities and corruption. The outcome for the individuals in a lot of the cases point to the fact that they don’t get the protection they deserve.</p>
<p>Notable examples include <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/whistleblower-doctor-claims-victory-387905">Paul Theron</a>, the prison doctor who exposed poor health conditions at Pollsmoor Prison in the Western Cape. </p>
<p>Dr Theron was suspended after he made the disclosures to parliament. He battled to get his case heard in the whistle-blowing process. But he finally ended up in the Labour Court. He was never reinstated.</p>
<p>There’s also the famous case of <a href="http://www.africanplatform.org/fileadmin/Content/PDF/Resources/Publications/HeroesUnderFire.pdf">Mike Tshishonga</a>, a civil servant who made serious allegations to the media about a former Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development. He was immediately suspended and subjected to a disciplinary inquiry. </p>
<p>The matter took many years to be resolved ending up in the Labour Appeal Court. </p>
<p>The most notable recent case was the murder of <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/babita-deokarans-murder-will-deter-whistleblowers-from-speaking-out-says-goodson-20210826">Babita Deokaran</a>. She had exposed corruption within the Gauteng province’s health department prior to her death. </p>
<p>It is evident from these examples that the South African whistle-blowing environment is failing to encourage people to come forward.</p>
<h2>What’s in place</h2>
<p>South Africa has various pieces of legislation and regulatory policy documents that cover corruption and whistle-blowing. They also provide for the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292689589_The_Protected_Disclosures_Act_26_of_2000_the_Companies_Act_71_of_2008_and_the_Competition_Act_89_of_1998_with_regard_to_whistle-blowing_protection_Is_there_a_link">protection of whistleblowers</a>.</p>
<p>The most important of these is the <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/protected-disclosures-amendment-act-5-2017-english-afrikaans-2-aug-2017-0000">Protected Disclosures Act 26 of 2000</a>. The act aims to encourage whistle-blowing in the workplace. It also seeks to create a culture that makes it easier to disclose information about criminal and other irregular conduct.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/saconstitution-web-eng.pdf">Constitution</a>, the <a href="https://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/en/za/za091en.pdf">Labour Relations Act</a> and the <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/companies-act">Companies Act</a> are also part of the whistle-blowing legislative framework. </p>
<p>For its part, the <a href="https://www.compcom.co.za/">South African Competition Commission</a> encourages “authorised whistle-blowing” on cartels involved in, among other things, price fixing and collusive tendering.</p>
<p>In addition, the <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/prevention-and-combating-corrupt-activities-act-0">Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act</a> seeks to strengthen measures to prevent and combat corruption. It places a duty on certain people holding positions of authority to report certain corrupt transactions.</p>
<p>The Protected Disclosures Act lists the <a href="https://www.agsa.co.za/AboutUs/TheAuditor-General.aspx">Auditor-General</a> and the <a href="http://www.publicprotector.org/">Public Protector</a> as institutions that whistleblowers can disclose information to. Both are important in achieving the purposes of the Act and are equipped with specialists to deal with corruption and other illegal activities. But they should receive additional funding to do their jobs better.</p>
<p>South Africa’s regulatory framework is one of the best in the world. But there are gaps in the system. </p>
<h2>Steps to strengthen the system</h2>
<p>South Africa should consider setting up an independent whistle-blowing institution. This would help whistleblowers from the time they make disclosures. It could ensure:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the confidentiality of information flow </p></li>
<li><p>the protection of their identities </p></li>
<li><p>mapping the way forward for them.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>This would enhance the current system. It would also showcase the important role these <a href="https://mg.co.za/opinion/2020-09-29-sa-needs-a-speak-out-culture-and-whistleblowers-are-recognised-as-patriots/">heroes and heroines play</a>. </p>
<p>I also think that the country should consider using dedicated specialised courts and units that deal specifically with corruption and whistleblower protection. This would:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>show that government is serious about dealing with criminal and illegal activities that have high social and economic costs</p></li>
<li><p>send a clear message that the full impact of the law will be felt by perpetrators and,</p></li>
<li><p>show a serious commitment to upholding a value-system where whistleblowers are valued and protected.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Employers should have a zero-tolerance policy in dealing with corruption and other irregular activities. Internal procedures sometimes lack a proper commitment to follow up issues raised by whistleblower. Often no feedback is provided or nothing is done. </p>
<p>I support the suggestion by the Open Democracy Advice Centre that the development of a <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/23258/">“Code of Good Practice”</a> would help. It sets out a full and considered guidance to private and public bodies on interpretations of the law, implementation of whistle-blowing policies, and alternative mechanisms for preventing corruption </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340755929_Whistle-Blowing_for_Reward_-_Friend_or_Foe_Exploring_a_Possible_Tax_Whistle-Blowing_Programme_in_South_Africa">my research</a> I support calls for the remuneration of whistleblowers. For example, they could be eligible for a financial reward based on the amount of tax revenue eventually collected.</p>
<p>Lessons can be learned from the US which has strong whistle-blowing protections. These include the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/civil/false-claims-act">False Claims Act</a> which allows private citizens to file suit on behalf of government when they have evidence of fraud. Such citizens who recover money or assets are entitled to rewards for their efforts.</p>
<p>Another is the <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dodd-frank-financial-regulatory-reform-bill.asp">Dodd-Frank Act</a>. It provides for a reward of between 10% and 30% of the amounts collected if an “eligible whistleblower” voluntarily provides original information.</p>
<p>These measures can be easily adopted by South Africa where compensation is wholly inadequate. The compensation cap provided for in the Protected Disclosures Act in line with the limits under the Labour Relations Act is not sufficient. For example, in the case of an unfair labour practice the employee would be entitled to a maximum of 12 months’ compensation and in the case of automatically unfair dismissal to a maximum of 24 months’ compensation. </p>
<p>Another problem is that it only kicks in when the whistle-blowing employee has suffered an <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317473911_Minister_for_Justice_and_Constitutional_Development_v_Tshishonga_2009_9_BLLR_862_L">“occupational detriment”</a>. For example, when a employee faces disciplinary action, dismissal, suspension, demotion, harassment, intimidation, or transfer against his or her will.</p>
<p>It is time for business and political leaders as well as civil society organisations to push harder for a system where speaking up is normalised and whistleblowers are adequately protected. And rewarded.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168134/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monray Marsellus Botha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>South Africa has seen a fair number of whistleblowers raising the alarm on irregularities and corruption – the most recent was murdered.Monray Marsellus Botha, Head of Department & Associate Professor, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1634442021-06-25T15:26:40Z2021-06-25T15:26:40ZWhy Matt Hancock’s private life is very much in the public interest<p>The Sun newspaper’s publication of images from Matt Hancock’s office inside the UK Department of Health, which appear to show the health secretary in a <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15392668/matt-hancock-breaks-silence-sorry-affair/">“steamy clinch”</a> with a colleague, has led to his resignation. But it has also once again raised the issue of privacy from press intrusion.</p>
<p>Allegations regarding the health secretary’s relationship with a university friend and aide, Gina Coladangelo, were featured on the front page of the newspaper and went viral within minutes of publication online.</p>
<p>It is alleged the couple, who are both married and have children, kissed and embraced in Hancock’s office in May, breaking COVID-19 social distancing rules put in place by his own department.</p>
<p>Before his resignation, Hancock initially apologised in a statement, saying: “I accept that I breached the social distancing guidance in these circumstances. I have let people down and am very sorry. I remain focused on working to get the country out of this pandemic, and would be grateful for privacy for my family on this personal matter.”</p>
<p>The exposure of a government minister’s alleged infidelities is nothing new. In journalistic terms, the story is a great example of old fashioned, tabloid newspaper reporting. But front-page stories like this are now something of a rarity as newspapers compete to publish first online, rarely holding back true exclusives for print.</p>
<p>Another reason is the tightening of privacy laws.</p>
<h2>How we are protected</h2>
<p>In 2000, the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/42/contents">Human Rights Act</a> incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law. Article 8 covers the right to privacy, stating: “Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.”</p>
<p>In effect, Article 8 protects everyone’s privacy from interference by “public authority”, which includes the media. This extends to extramarital relationships, and in recent years judges have become more likely to rule adulterous affairs are private matters. </p>
<p>The 2008 case of the late Max Mosley set an important precedent in this area of law. The former Formula 1 boss <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/jul/24/mosley.privacy">successfully sued</a> the News of the World for breach of privacy after its exposé about his participation in sadomasochistic activities with prostitutes, effectively ruling what he did in his private life was exactly that – private.</p>
<p>But there are exceptions. In 2010, a temporary injunction was imposed on the media, banning reporting of married Chelsea footballer John Terry’s affair with a teammate’s girlfriend. It was later <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8488232.stm">lifted</a> after a high court judge said rumours about the affair were already in the public domain, and that Terry was more concerned about his sponsorship deals than anything else.</p>
<p>Had Hancock been a relatively unknown government worker who applied for an injunction against The Sun preventing it from publishing the images, he would very likely have won his case. He’d have had a “reasonable expectation of privacy”.</p>
<p>But he wasn’t. He was a high profile, frontbench MP, elected by members of the public and leading the country’s response to a global health crisis which has killed millions of people. Here, the media has a very useful weapon in its armoury if it can persuade the court there is a strong public interest in publishing the story. This is also backed up by the journalists’ code, which sets out stringent professional standards for ethical practices in reporting.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1408339966208401414"}"></div></p>
<h2>Codes of conduct</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ipso.co.uk/editors-code-of-practice/">Editors’ Code of Practice</a> is set out by the Independent Press Standards Commission (IPSO), and newspapers and magazines which sign up to be regulated by IPSO (including The Sun) agree to abide by the guidelines.</p>
<p>The clause is similar to Article 8 in its wording, which states everyone is “entitled to respect for their private and family life.”</p>
<p>Editors are expected to justify intrusions into any individual’s private life without consent, but if the material complained about is already in the public domain – and there are claims the Hancock affair was being discussed in DHSC WhatsApp groups – any complaint could fail.</p>
<p>The code goes on to say that it is unacceptable to photograph individuals, without their consent, in public or private places where there is a “reasonable expectation of privacy”.</p>
<p>However, if newspaper editors can demonstrate publication both “serves” and “is proportionate to” the public interest, they can argue that public interest exceptions apply. </p>
<p>Among others, these exemptions include exposing serious crime or serious impropriety, protecting public health or safety, disclosing a person or organisation’s failure to comply with any obligation to which they are subject, raising or contributing to a matter of public debate – including impropriety and unethical conduct or incompetence concerning the public.</p>
<p>The newspaper would no doubt argue this story is very much in the public interest for several reasons: </p>
<p>The alleged affair has taken place on government property during working hours, calling into question Hancock’s focus while responsible for leading the government’s response to a global health crisis.</p>
<p>It also draws attention to the spending of taxpayers’ money on the appointment of Coladangelo to the Department of Health’s oversight board. It is alleged she was appointed by Hancock as a paid, non-executive director last September.</p>
<p>And uniquely to this situation, it raises the question of hypocrisy on Hancock’s part. The footage allegedly shows him breaking social distancing and mask-wearing rules with someone from another household before such lockdown rules were lifted. </p>
<p>Whatever happens next, one thing is for sure – the public most certainly had an interest.</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to reflect Matt Hancock’s resignation.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163444/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Polly Rippon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A media law expert explains why the Sun was right to report on Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s personal life.Polly Rippon, University Teacher in Journalism, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1387602020-06-16T11:50:40Z2020-06-16T11:50:40ZA pragmatist philosopher’s view of the US response to the coronavirus pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338053/original/file-20200527-20245-16flyc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C80%2C5964%2C5694&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">American thinker John Dewey in 1946.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/candid-portrait-of-american-philosopher-psychologist-and-news-photo/590236214">JHU Sheridan Libraries/Gado/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Though many in the U.S. are disoriented and disheartened by the lack of an effective federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, John Dewey, an American philosopher, psychologist and educator, would not have been surprised. </p>
<p>Dewey presented a nuanced analysis of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=t7QTC8NuGL8C&pg=PA296&lpg=PA296&dq=democracy+is+radical+dewey&source=bl&ots=1oxi8KJVdH&sig=ACfU3U2ScEOA0A39YP1zC6C4yNSoa6VcDg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi76PLB0L7pAhVRlHIEHSl4ARw4ChDoATAAegQIDBAB#v=onepage&q=democracy%20is%20radical%20dewey&f=false">democracy</a>, which <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-Ijk7W0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">we</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Gw18csMAAAAJ">study</a> as philosophers. </p>
<p>Dewey, who <a href="https://www.biography.com/scholar/john-dewey">lived from 1859 to 1952</a>, argued that democracies that put capitalism at their center, like the U.S., will march toward what he called a “bourgeois democracy.” This political system pays lip service to “government of, by, and for all the people,” and promises opportunities and freedom for all. But in reality, power is concentrated in the hands of industry and the economic elite. </p>
<p>Dewey outlined two characteristics of bourgeois democracy that can help explain the current U.S. federal response to the coronavirus: a focus on corporate interests, which many people have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/05/donald-trump-coronavirus-economic-recovery">criticized</a> for <a href="https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/04/27/breaking-news/trump-shifts-coronavirus-focus-to-economy/">focusing on business and the economy</a>, and an “us versus them” dynamic demonstrated in President Donald Trump’s response to the global aspects of the pandemic.</p>
<h2>Corporate interests versus people</h2>
<p>In Dewey’s view, humans’ actions affect others, making people interdependent: “<a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.263386/page/n25/mode/2up/search/connected+with+other">A being connected with other human beings</a> cannot perform his own activities without taking the activities of others into account.” This interdependence gives rise to shared interests. For example, it is in the public interest, for its health, to limit toxic waste dumping. </p>
<p>The public is in the best position to protect its own interests, via democratic decision-making. In bourgeois democracies <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.190550">officials ignore their wider civic responsibility</a>, creating a “void between the government and the public,” which company leaders fill eagerly. Those leaders want government to be small and let the market take care of public problems. </p>
<p>In the current pandemic, companies such as Amazon have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/commentisfree/2020/mar/24/the-us-of-amazon-how-the-coronavirus-has-created-a-governance-vacuum-the-tech-giant-is-quickly-filling">stepped into the void</a>, rapidly mobilizing 100,000 workers, extending grants to small businesses and cracking down on profiteers who hiked the prices of sought-after goods. While such actions were undeniably useful for Amazon customers, there is no guarantee that Amazon’s interests overlap with those of the public. For instance, there was little incentive for Amazon to make sure it <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-04-16/la-fi-toilet-paper-amazon-china-sellers">kept stocking toilet paper</a>, which has low profit margins and takes up a lot of bulk, though the public struggled to find this basic item. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337749/original/file-20200526-106853-136wrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337749/original/file-20200526-106853-136wrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337749/original/file-20200526-106853-136wrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337749/original/file-20200526-106853-136wrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337749/original/file-20200526-106853-136wrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337749/original/file-20200526-106853-136wrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337749/original/file-20200526-106853-136wrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337749/original/file-20200526-106853-136wrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Dewey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Dewey_cph.3a51565.jpg">Underwood & Underwood/Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dewey’s insight was that in a bourgeois democracy, capitalism is perceived as the force that lets people accomplish freedom and individuality. In that analysis, the health of business becomes synonymous with the health of democracy itself. As a result, protecting businesses becomes the highest goal. Businesses trump people because without the businesses and the economy, people cannot fulfill their democratic potential.</p>
<p>Dewey’s views on democracy explain why the federal government has done <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/8/21242003/trump-failed-coronavirus-response">less than</a> <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-federal-governments-coronavirus-actions-and-failures-timeline-and-themes/">many had hoped</a>, and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/04/30/848179346/pandemic-fuels-debate-trumps-america-first-or-u-s-global-leadership">less than other national governments</a> have done, to fight the coronavirus. </p>
<p>Dewey also explains why most funds have gone to bailing out large companies, including <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-04/airlines-got-the-sweetest-coronavirus-bailout-around">airlines and oil companies</a>, the speed of response and magnitude of which dwarfs aid for <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/who-should-get-bailed-out-in-the-coronavirus-economy">small businesses and workers</a>.</p>
<p>President Trump’s phrase “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-restrictions.html">the cure cannot be worse than the problem itself</a>” illustrates this point. In a bourgeois democracy, any “cure” to the pandemic – such as social distancing and stay-at-home orders – that damages the economy is also a threat to democracy. In that view, protecting people from a deadly disease should not be allowed to destroy the economy.</p>
<h2>Us versus them</h2>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=t7QTC8NuGL8C&pg=PA296&lpg=PA296&dq=democracy+is+radical+dewey&source=bl&ots=1oxi8KJVdH&sig=ACfU3U2ScEOA0A39YP1zC6C4yNSoa6VcDg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi76PLB0L7pAhVRlHIEHSl4ARw4ChDoATAAegQIDBAB#v=onepage&q=democracy%20is%20radical%20dewey&f=false">Dewey</a> believed democracy was more than a system of government: It was a way of living together and sharing our experiences. When people engage with each other and different ideas, Dewey taught, they come to understand themselves and humanity more fully. This would help people to understand what decisions would be in everyone’s best interests. Dewey’s insights are borne out in studies that show that the best remedy to xenophobia and racism is to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioural-public-policy/article/contact-hypothesis-reevaluated/142C913E7FA9E121277B29E994124EC5">know more</a> <a href="https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/obsonline/interracial-contact-during-medical-school.html">about the people</a> you might harbor prejudice against. </p>
<p>By contrast, bourgeois democracy can only survive if citizens do not develop a collective faith in humanity through sharing experiences – if they are scared of each other, cut off from each other and in competition rather than cooperation. Stoking social division maintains the status quo and prevents transforming society from a bourgeois democracy into a truer, more human-focused democracy.</p>
<p>Early reactions to the pandemic from the Trump administration included banning travel from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/business/china-travel-coronavirus.html">China</a> and <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/12/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-europe-travel/index.html">Europe</a>, issuing an executive order that halted applications for <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/politics/donald-trump-immigration-coronavirus/index.html">green cards</a>, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/trump-administration-has-expelled-10000-migrants-at-the-border-during-coronavirus-outbreak/2020/04/09/b177c534-7a7b-11ea-8cec-530b4044a458_story.html">expelling undocumented migrants</a>.</p>
<p>This fits in a broader pattern: In the U.S., <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/11/26/trumps-xenophobia-is-an-american-tradition-it-doesnt-have-be/">members of the conservative right</a> have been portraying non-Americans as a threat to society. They have been blamed for stealing jobs, bringing crime and otherwise harming the economy in ways that block people from achieving the freedom and individuality that bourgeois democracy promises.</p>
<h2>Education as the remedy</h2>
<p>While this diagnosis of American democracy is bleak, Dewey believed there was a remedy: education. In the early 20th century, when Dewey was alive and most active, scientific advances were already so widely spread and so detailed in their insights that regular people couldn’t realistically keep up with all the latest information. That led some thinkers, such as <a href="https://archive.org/details/publicopinion00lippgoog">Walter Lippmann</a>, to argue for governance by experts, rather than the masses.</p>
<p>Dewey, however, maintained his belief in the importance of <a href="https://archive.org/details/publicitsproblem00dewe/mode/2up">public engagement</a> in democracy. To him, democracy is not some special, obscure force but something that arises spontaneously, as seen throughout the country in town halls and school districts every day. But in order to participate in democratic decision-making, people need to be educated. </p>
<p>Dewey promoted changes to American public education that would help people analyze the flood of expert knowledge to determine what policies best served their interests, such as considering the potential risks and benefits of <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3605981">imposing and lifting lockdowns</a>. </p>
<p>To Dewey, a well-informed public could help make those decisions and hold government officials accountable for the results. He believed education should help people realize their full potential in a collective democratic society. That is at odds with the bourgeois democracy vision of education, where higher education is worthwhile because of the net benefits it provides in terms of income. For Dewey, the federal failure in response to the pandemic would be evidence that the country has not valued the potential of all its members, but rather only those who hold financial power.</p>
<p>Instead, Dewey taught, true democracy can only be achieved if people were to live democracy, to let their lives be directed by an enduring faith in the possibility for humans to be more than what they are. As a result, the political institution of democracy would manifest our enduring faith in what we can achieve as human beings, rather than in <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=t7QTC8NuGL8C&pg=PA296&lpg=PA296&dq=democracy+is+radical+dewey&source=bl&ots=1oxi8KJVdH&sig=ACfU3U2ScEOA0A39YP1zC6C4yNSoa6VcDg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi76PLB0L7pAhVRlHIEHSl4ARw4ChDoATAAegQIDBAB#v=onepage&q=democracy%20is%20radical%20dewey&f=false">capitalism</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138760/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Though many in the US are disoriented and disheartened by the lack of an effective federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, American thinker John Dewey would not have been surprised.Johnathan Flowers, Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Worcester State UniversityHelen De Cruz, Danforth Chair in the Humanities, Saint Louis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1368872020-05-28T13:47:07Z2020-05-28T13:47:07ZGhana has tried to be responsible with its oil wealth. This is how<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337234/original/file-20200524-124840-1ul2c3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ghana is still finding ways of maximising its oil wealth</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After Ghana discovered oil and gas in 2007, the government and civil society aspired to avoid the “resource curse”. This is when countries have an abundance of non-renewable natural resources but no economic growth. </p>
<p>Nigeria, Sudan, Angola, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Chad are among the oil producers that have <a href="https://www.ifpri.org/publication/natural-resource-curse-africa-dutch-disease-and-institutional-explanations">failed</a> to channel their resources into the material improvement of their countries and people. </p>
<p>To avoid a similar fate, Ghana enacted a Petroleum Revenue Management Act in 2011. The law created the Public Interest and Accountability Committee, with a mandate to ensure accountability and transparency in the management and use of oil and gas revenue. </p>
<p>Although there are several published <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321184435_A_STUDY_OF_GHANA'S_OIL_AND_GAS_INDUSTRY_LOCAL_GHANAIAN_CONTENT_POLICY_PROCESS">studies</a> on Ghana’s oil and gas sector, very few have looked at this committee. Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02589001.2020.1715929">study</a> provides a nuanced understanding of the successes and failures of this institutional arrangement.</p>
<p>We also came up with some recommendations for ways to strengthen the committee to deliver effectively on its mandate.</p>
<h2>The big wins</h2>
<p>Since its inauguration in 2011, the Public Interest and Accountability Committee has recorded some success. </p>
<p>A major achievement is its role in legitimising government’s commitment to good governance in Ghana’s oil and gas sector. Indeed, the <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5728c7b18259b5e0087689a6/t/57ab29519de4bb90f53f9fff/1470835029000/2013_African+Progress+Panel+APR_Equity_in_Extractives_25062013_ENG_HR.pdf">Africa Progress Report</a> describes the committee as an “independent regulatory body” and a pioneer in achieving rigorous rules for reporting and greater accountability in the natural resources sector. </p>
<p>The two major political parties, the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress, and some state officials use the existence of the committee as indicative of their commitment to good governance. <a href="https://resourcegovernance.org/sites/default/files/nrgi_Resource-Curse.pdf">Scholars</a> of the resource curse consider good governance to be an important factor in whether natural resources benefit a country.</p>
<p>Citizen participation has also been encouraged. For example between 2017 and 2019, the committee held regional workshops with citizens to discuss areas of investment from oil revenue. The choices made by government in its expenditure of oil revenue aligned with suggestions made by citizens.</p>
<p>In eight years, the committee has produced 16 <a href="https://www.piacghana.org/portal/5/25/piac-reports">reports</a> on the activities of the oil and gas sector, as required by legislation. All of these reports have set out findings and recommendations, with a view to enhancing transparency and accountability. In 2011, for instance, the <a href="https://www.piacghana.org/portal/5/25/piac-reports">report</a> noted that not all payments that were expected to go into the Ghana Petroleum Holding Fund had been reported as required.</p>
<h2>Weaknesses</h2>
<p>But the committee also has challenges that have undermined the full realisation of its potential.</p>
<p>First of all, there is the conflict of genuine buy-in by donors on the one hand and the “unswerving support” by the government of Ghana on the other hand.
As pointed out by another <a href="https://www.herald.co.zw/africas-natural-resources-and-underdevelopment/">author</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the Petroleum Revenue Management Act 2011 was mostly motivated by donors’ concerns about the alleged corrupt and the “inept” Ghanaian/ African state’s abuse of finances, it was designed to safeguard revenues after they have been paid into government coffers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The committee’s 13 members are drawn from civil society, academia and trade bodies. This makeup was heavily influenced by foreign donors like the German Technical Cooperation and Oxfam America in exchange for financial support during its first six years of operation. The potential danger is that the committee could seek the interest of these international donor agencies rather than the interest of Ghana.</p>
<p>Furthermore, there appears to be lack of clarity in some provisions of the law that set up the committee. It’s not clear which committee of parliament must receive and act on reports. </p>
<p>Finally, there are no regulations to accompany the petroleum revenue management act. Regulations are needed to interpret the act and make it work in practice.</p>
<h2>Conclusions</h2>
<p>Having a progressive institution like Ghana’s public interest and accountability committee is, on its own, no guarantee that oil and gas wealth will be used to benefit the country.</p>
<p>We believe there are a few ways to enable the committee to perform its duties more effectively. First, its recommendations should be debated and implemented by Parliament and the Attorney General. </p>
<p>It should have a permanent relationship with the attorney general’s department to investigate and prosecute public and private officials who may be causing loss to the state. This is a significant problem due to perceived bias in the justice system. </p>
<p>Secondly, we recommend that the committee submit its budget to a select committee in parliament to assess and approve. It should then be sent to the finance committee for consideration before approval by parliament.</p>
<p>Finally, the committee should find innovative ways of compelling the government to adhere to its recommendations. This can be done using various social media platforms for public education and advocacy. In this way ordinary Ghanaians and civil society groups will be informed and be able to exert pressure.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136887/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Oversight over how Ghana’s oil wealth is spent has become more important than ever.E Graham, Teaching Assistant and PhD student (Department of Politics), York University, CanadaIsmael Ackah, Lecturer, Institute for Oil and Gas Studies, University of Cape CoastNathan Andrews, Assistant Professor, Department of Global & International Studies, University of Northern British ColumbiaRansford Edward Gyampo, Associate Professor,Political Science, University of GhanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1275502019-12-13T18:00:33Z2019-12-13T18:00:33ZIn impeachment spotlight, dueling views of professionalism appear<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306638/original/file-20191212-85428-1xqen6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C466%2C5278%2C3010&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">To some, White House aide Jennifer Williams and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman are impartial truth-tellers; to others, they are power-hungry bureaucrats.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Trump-Impeachment/14630731596b4e3cbc5696a80af70958/3/0">AP Photo/Andrew Harnik</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Impeachment hearings have thrust a handful of public servants into the spotlight, where competing ideas about government professionals – variously called the <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/kent-taylor-impeachment-ukraine/">establishment</a>, the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/us/politics/trump-deep-state-impeachment.html">deep state</a>,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/07/opinion/sunday/twilight-of-the-technocrats.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage">technocrats</a>, <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2019-10-25/bureaucrats-prove-key-to-the-impeachment-case-against-trump">bureaucrats</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/11/trump-attack-vindman-yovanovitch-hill/602383/">experts</a> and <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/donald-trump-criticizes-washingtons-policy-elite-cause">elites</a> – shape public reaction to their testimony.</p>
<p>A recent New York Times column by Frank Bruni <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/opinion/trump-impeachment-inquiry.html">captures the divide</a>. Bruni salutes professionalism as “a reality-based enterprise” with “credentials, benchmarks, all sorts of yardsticks by which a person can be judged.” </p>
<p>But a <a href="https://nyti.ms/2KiffCe#permid=103636261">commenter on the column going by the name of David</a> wants “much less of … the arrogance of those ‘true professionals’ presuming that they know better what is good or bad for the country than a democratically elected president and American people who elected him.”</p>
<p>Bruni’s professionals – the sort recently honored by Time magazine as “<a href="https://time.com/guardians-of-the-year-2019-public-servants/">Guardians of the Year</a>” – are a thin, principled line restraining the president’s worst instincts. Commenter David’s are out-of-touch elites scorning his <a href="https://time.com/4608555/hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final/">particular view of the popular will</a>.</p>
<p>This conflict is not new. As <a href="https://www.rit.edu/directory/mjbgsm-michael-brown">a historian writing about the role of the intellectual in American politics</a> for a forthcoming book, I see it often. </p>
<p>For at least a century, professionalism and the unflattering term “technocrats” have suggested people who, setting aside self-interest, take an objective, expert approach to public affairs. </p>
<p>Thinkers across the political spectrum have questioned this connection, however, seeing in professionalism a bastion of authority rather than a badge of competence. To them, the virtues underlying professionals’ status – rationality, responsibility, detachment – mask their play for power.</p>
<p>How the officials now in the spotlight are perceived – as professionals bound by facts, standards and duty or as elites who invoke them while pursuing their own agenda – may determine whether impeachment proceedings elicit public support or opposition.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306646/original/file-20191212-85391-15dtuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this 1884 newspaper illustration, armed guards escort workers through a strike demonstration. It was a chaotic time that led to calls for impartial experts to work on behalf of all citizens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pinkerton_escorts_hocking_valley_leslies.jpg">Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A path to progress</h2>
<p>By the late 19th century, American political life looked chaotic and corrupt to a growing movement of reformers. </p>
<p>Greedy political <a href="https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1851-1900/The-prison-escape-of-former-Representative-William-%E2%80%9CBoss%E2%80%9D-Tweed-of-New-York/">bosses</a> presided over cities, and labor disputes involved the naked use of force, with Pinkerton private security guards and state militias in <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/carnegie-strike-homestead-mill/">open battle</a> against striking workers. Amid the melee, many Americans <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/search-for-order-1877-1920/oclc/490459">searched for order</a>.</p>
<p>The possibility that objective, fact-based analysts could do the public’s work, with only the public interest in mind, was an appealing prospect. Self-dealing city bosses could be replaced by well-trained city managers. Public administration might control chaos and corruption. Professionalism could bring progress.</p>
<h2>A route to power</h2>
<p>Critics, however, glimpsed a narrower agenda. Historian Christopher Lasch, for instance, wrote that budding professionals had “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/new-radicalism-in-america-1889-1963-the-intellectual-as-a-social-type/oclc/256273">no resources, as a class, except argument and exposition</a>.” Lacking the concentrated wealth of the upper class and the numerical strength of the working class, members of the educated middle class were, Lasch argued, underdogs in a brute-force political world. Their best advantage lay in a society governed by reasoned argument rather than raw power. The quest for competent, impartial administration represented middle-class professionals’ vision of progress and their path to influence.</p>
<p>Instead of rising above class struggle, conservative commentator Irving Kristol claimed, professionals joined it.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/about-equality/">The professional classes … are engaged in a class struggle</a> with the business community for status and power,” Kristol warned in 1972. Thinking they could “<a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/about-equality/">do a better job of running our society</a>,” professionals sought the levers of government to do so. Kristol had in mind the domestic regulatory apparatus that the Trump administration <a href="https://time.com/4700311/donald-trump-white-house-counsel-steve-bannon/">wants to undo</a>.</p>
<p>Anarchist-socialist intellectual Noam Chomsky emphasized professionals’ role in global domination rather than stateside business. Borrowing a term for imperial Chinese officials, Chomsky called policy professionals “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/american-power-and-the-new-mandarins/oclc/783551719?referer=di&ht=edition">new mandarins</a>.” To him, they were administrators and apologists for an American empire. Historian <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/bitter-heritage/oclc/814409961?referer=di&ht=edition">Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.</a>, who had served in the Kennedy administration, attributed the Vietnam War to a sequence of blunders; <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1969/01/02/the-menace-of-liberal-scholarship/">Chomsky</a> thought it “designed and executed by these new mandarins.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306647/original/file-20191212-85417-hxlyb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A career diplomat, Ambassador William Taylor has been criticized by the president and his supporters as a biased ‘Never Trumper.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Trump-Impeachment/a37230b2ce70408eb4d8977676078328/3/0">AP Photo/Andrew Harnik</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A higher code?</h2>
<p>Chomsky, Lasch and Kristol span the political spectrum, from anarchism to neoconservatism, yet all three were skeptical of professionalism. </p>
<p>Behind professionals’ values, they saw a strategy for advancing professionals’ power. But these skeptics were not cynics who thought all values were shams or self-interest the only interest. They believed that public figures could live by a higher code, for they encouraged intellectuals like themselves to do so.</p>
<p>“It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and to expose lies,” <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1967/02/23/a-special-supplement-the-responsibility-of-intelle/">Chomsky declared</a>. Similarly, the Ukraine whistleblower wrote of “<a href="https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/20190812_-_whistleblower_complaint_unclass.pdf">fulfilling my duty to report this information</a>,” exposing facts that others might prefer remain hidden. </p>
<p>The president’s defenders take a more cynical view: Officials who question his conduct do so from personal motives rather than public responsibility. The whistleblower, they claim, is <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ukraine-whistleblower-had-political-bias-and-was-in-favor-of-trumps-rival-candidate-doj">politically biased</a>. Likewise, the president dubs Ambassador William Taylor, who testified before the House Intelligence Committee, a “<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/23/trump-william-taylor-tweet-ukraine-055917">Never Trumper</a>.” </p>
<h2>Professionalism or citizenship?</h2>
<p>Calling these professionals “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/us/trump-impeachment-ukraine.html">radical unelected bureaucrats</a>,” the president’s allies aim to shift attention from his actions to the specter of an anti-democratic establishment. Indeed, both sides of the impeachment debate claim a duty to democracy: Convicting Trump ends his corrupt authoritarianism; vindicating him protects the people’s “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-speech-at-republican-national-convention-trump-to-paint-dire-picture-of-america/2016/07/21/418f9ae6-4fad-11e6-aa14-e0c1087f7583_story.html">voice</a>.” </p>
<p>When reason and public responsibility define professionalism, these virtues implicitly distinguish professionals from others. That distinction is uncomfortable for democracy. It suggests that professionals are not just a group apart but also one above. </p>
<p>In a culture of dueling stories about professionalism, the officials who testify at impeachment hearings may find that their evidence reaches its widest audience when presented in light not of virtues exclusive to professionals but decency common to citizens.</p>
<p>[ <em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127550/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael J. Brown does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Public officials are now in the spotlight: Does the public view them as professionals, bound by duty, or as elites who invoke ideals while pursuing their own agendas?Michael J. Brown, Assistant Professor of History, Rochester Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1261702019-11-14T18:27:52Z2019-11-14T18:27:52ZCities and states take up the battle for an open internet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301382/original/file-20191112-178520-1dalirv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C0%2C6000%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Communities across the U.S. are taking network construction into their own hands.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/concept-network-troubleshoot-supporter-administrator-internet-507379189">T.Dallas/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon are <a href="https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/FA43C305E2B9A35485258486004F6D0F/%24file/18-1051-1808766.pdf">free to slow down, block or prioritize internet traffic</a> as they wish, without interference by the federal government. That’s the effect of an October ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-releases-restoring-internet-freedom-order">upholding a 2017 ruling by the Federal Communications Commission</a> that reversed rules requiring what is called “<a href="https://theconversation.com/understanding-net-neutrality-10-essential-reads-71848">net neutrality</a>” – treating all internet traffic equally, regardless of where it’s from or what kind of data it is.</p>
<p>Giving corporate telecom giants this power is <a href="http://www.publicconsultation.org/united-states/overwhelming-bipartisan-majority-opposes-repealing-net-neutrality">wildly unpopular among the American people</a>, who know that these companies have <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/02/fcc-accuses-atandt-and-verizon-of-violating-net-neutrality/">overcharged customers</a> and <a href="https://www.freepress.net/our-response/expert-analysis/explainers/net-neutrality-violations-brief-history">interfered with users’ internet access</a> in the past. </p>
<p>However, people who advocate for an open internet, free of corporate roadblocks, might find solace in another aspect of the court’s ruling: States and local governments may be able to mandate <a href="https://qz.com/1721633/us-net-neutralitys-crushing-defeat-this-week-may-end-up-saving-it/">their own net neutrality rules</a>.</p>
<h2>The effort is underway</h2>
<p>Governors in six states – Hawaii, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont – have already signed executive orders enforcing net neutrality by prohibiting state agencies from doing business with internet service providers that limit customers’ online access. Four states have passed their own laws <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/net-neutrality-legislation-in-states.aspx">requiring internet companies to treat all online content equally</a>: California, Oregon, Washington and Vermont. A <a href="https://www.governing.com/news/headlines/GT-New-Hampshire-Bill-Will-Allow-Multi-Town-Broadband-System.html">New Hampshire bill</a> is in the works.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.freepress.net/news/press-releases/more-100-mayors-sign-pledge-protect-open-internet-fccs-net-neutrality-repeal">More than 100 mayors</a> representing both large urban centers such as San Francisco and small cities such as Edmond, Oklahoma, have pledged not to sign contracts with internet service providers that violate net neutrality. </p>
<p>These mayors are leveraging the lucrative contracts that their municipalities have with internet providers to wire public schools, libraries and local government buildings to pressure these companies into observing net neutrality throughout the city.</p>
<p>The emerging patchwork of local- and state-level net neutrality legislation could help ensure that millions of Americans have access to an open internet. However, people living outside of these enclaves will still be vulnerable to the whims of for-profit internet service providers. In our new book, “<a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300241402/after-net-neutrality">After Net Neutrality: A New Deal for the Digital Age</a>,” we argue that the best way to protect the public interest is to remove internet service from the commercial market and treat broadband as a public utility.</p>
<p><iframe id="KXdlE" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/KXdlE/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Corporations focus on profits</h2>
<p>Broadband giants have spent <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/issues/net_neutrality/">millions of dollars</a> lobbying against federal open internet regulations since 2006. Industry-backed efforts even included funding a network of far-right online trolls <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jsvine/net-neutrality-fcc-fake-comments-impersonation">to spam the FCC’s website</a> with anti-net neutrality propaganda. These companies continue to want the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-04/youtube-and-netflix-throttled-by-carriers-research-finds">power to manipulate online traffic</a>, such as charging users and content providers like Netflix <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2014/03/20/netflix-blasts-isps-calls-for-strong-net-neutrality-and-explains-why-it-pays-comcast/">to access each other</a> – even though both are already paying for connections to the internet.</p>
<p>This history of manipulation highlights a recurring challenge to the ideal of net neutrality: Governments seek to reconcile the public’s interest in open, nondiscriminatory online communication with the profit interests of large internet service providers. The resulting policies only narrowly target corporations’ manipulative practices, while letting the companies continue to own and control the physical network itself.</p>
<h2>Cities build their own</h2>
<p>A different vision of how the internet could operate is already taking shape across the United States. In recent years, many cities and towns around the country have <a href="https://muninetworks.org/communitymap">built their own broadband networks</a>. These communities are often seeking to provide affordable high-speed internet service to neighborhoods that the for-profit network providers aren’t adequately serving.</p>
<p>One of the best-known efforts is in the city of <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/chattanooga-was-a-typical-post-industrial-city-then-it-began-offering-municipal-broadband/">Chattanooga, Tennessee</a>, which built its own high-speed fiber-optic internet network in 2009. </p>
<p>Chattanooga’s experiment has been an unequivocal success: According to <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ne5k5m/consumer-reports-broadband-company-ratings">a 2018 survey</a> conducted by Consumer Reports, Chattanooga’s municipal broadband network is the top-rated internet provider in the entire U.S. </p>
<p>More than <a href="https://muninetworks.org/communitymap">500 other communities</a> around the country operate publicly owned internet networks. In general, these networks are <a href="https://cyber.harvard.edu/publications/2018/01/communityfiber">cheaper, faster and more transparent in their pricing</a> than their private sector counterparts, despite lacking Comcast and Verizon’s gigantic economies of scale. Because the people operating municipal broadband networks serve communities rather than large shareholders on Wall Street, they have a vested interest in respecting net neutrality principles.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301571/original/file-20191113-77326-13rw9zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301571/original/file-20191113-77326-13rw9zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301571/original/file-20191113-77326-13rw9zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301571/original/file-20191113-77326-13rw9zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301571/original/file-20191113-77326-13rw9zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301571/original/file-20191113-77326-13rw9zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301571/original/file-20191113-77326-13rw9zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301571/original/file-20191113-77326-13rw9zc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The city of Chattanooga has connected its residents and businesses with a municipally owned high-speed internet network.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/aerial-chattanooga-tennessee-tn-skyline-1173602353">Kevin Ruck/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Thinking bigger</h2>
<p>A number of much larger-scale public broadband initiatives have also been proposed to combat the power of the giant internet companies. In the 2018 election cycle, Democratic gubernatorial candidates from <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/could-vermont-become-the-first-state-with-universal-broadband/">Vermont</a> and <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/one-democrats-bold-plan-to-win-back-rural-trump-voters-cheap-internet">Michigan</a> proposed building publicly owned statewide internet networks. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ledgertranscript.com/What-presidential-candidates-are-saying-in-their-broadband-proposals-27938409">Several Democratic presidential candidates</a> have announced plans to build <a href="https://www.benton.org/blog/2020-candidates-offer-plans-extend-reach-broadband">thousands of miles of publicly owned high-speed internet</a> connections. They vary in the details, but all are responses to the concentration of corporate control over internet access – both in terms of who gets high-speed service in what locations at what price, and what content those connections carry. </p>
<p>Together, these initiatives reflect a growing understanding that Americans need a more expansive vision of an open internet to truly realize the <a href="https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence">democratic promise of an internet that reaches everyone</a>. </p>
<p>High-quality, affordable, restriction-free internet access can come from publicly owned providers that answer directly to the people. In our view, and in the eyes of a growing number of Americans, the broadband industry uses its entrenched market power to serve itself, not the public.</p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126170/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victor Pickard is a board member of the media reform organization Free Press. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Elliot Berman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A recent federal court ruling lets big telecom companies censor the internet in ways that boost their own profits – but also allows local and state governments to outlaw censorship if they wish.David Elliot Berman, Ph.D. Candidate in Communication, University of PennsylvaniaVictor Pickard, Associate Professor of Communication, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1215552019-08-12T19:57:23Z2019-08-12T19:57:23ZFrom Richard Boyle and Witness K to media raids: it’s time whistleblowers had better protection<p>Never has the case for law reform to properly protect public-interest whistleblowers been so stark.</p>
<p>Today, the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Intelligence_and_Security/FreedomofthePress">public hearings</a> into press freedom begin, following the “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-07/ita-buttrose-statement-in-full-on-afp-raids-on-abc/11189266">seismic</a>” raids on media organisations in early June.</p>
<p>A broader <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/PressFreedom">Senate inquiry</a> into protecting public whistleblowing is hot on its heels. This builds on a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Corporations_and_Financial_Services/WhistleblowerProtections/Report">2017 parliamentary inquiry</a>, which recommended reforms only partially implemented.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dutton-directive-gives-journalists-more-breathing-space-but-not-whistleblowers-121730">Dutton directive gives journalists more breathing space, but not whistleblowers</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Yesterday, a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-12/ato-whistleblower-richard-boyle-to-launch-crowdfunding-campaign/11387694">crowdfunding campaign</a> for Richard Boyle’s legal defence was launched. Boyle is charged with 66 offences for disclosing concerns about oppressive debt collection by the Australian Taxation Office in Adelaide.</p>
<p>What’s more, the unknown Australian Secret Intelligence Service agent “Witness K” last week <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/06/witness-k-to-plead-guilty-in-timor-leste-spying-case-but-lawyer-to-fight-charges">pleaded guilty</a> to exposing secrets by revealing Australia bugged Timor Leste government buildings during treaty negotiations in 2004. </p>
<p>Witness K’s legal advisor, Bernard Collaery – still fighting his own charges – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/10/witness-k-and-the-outrageous-spy-scandal-that-failed-to-shame-australia">described the prosecution</a> as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a very determined push to hide dirty political linen […] under the guise of national security imperatives.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The trouble is, Australian laws make it inevitable for whistleblowers to be charged whenever national security <em>might</em> be involved – even when, in theory, they’re intended to protect public interest whistleblowing.</p>
<h2>Most whistleblowers don’t go public</h2>
<p><a href="https://news.griffith.edu.au/2019/08/07/worlds-largest-whistleblowing-project-throws-weight-behind-reforms/">New research</a> – the world’s largest on whistleblowing – demonstrates the importance of whistleblower protection to public integrity and regulatory systems like never before.</p>
<p>Released last week, our <a href="http://www.whistlingwhiletheywork.edu.au/?p=1029">Clean As A Whistle</a> study reports on whistleblowing policies in 699 public and private sector organisations, and the experience of 17,778 employees in 46 of them. This includes 5,055 who raised concerns about wrongdoing, internally and outside their organisation.</p>
<p>The study confirms just how rare <em>public</em> whistleblowing is, even though whistleblowing <em>within</em> organisations is the lifeblood of integrity. In fact, whistleblowing is ranked as the single most important way wrongdoing is brought to light, leading to action or reform more than 60% of the time.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/parliamentary-press-freedom-inquiry-letting-the-fox-guard-the-henhouse-119820">Parliamentary press freedom inquiry: letting the fox guard the henhouse</a>
</strong>
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<p>In our study, 98% of whistleblowers raised their concerns internally. Only 2% went outside their organisations in the first instance. Even when whistleblowers feel forced to go outside, it is rarely directly to the media. In fact,</p>
<ul>
<li>only 16% of reporters ever went to an external regulatory body</li>
<li>of the 20% of reporters who ever went public, 19% went to a union, professional association or industry body. Only 1% of whistleblowers ever went directly to a journalist, media organisation or public website.</li>
</ul>
<p>These data show there’s hardly a crisis of leaking and external disclosure of information in Australian institutions.</p>
<p>As our research highlights, Australia’s whistleblowing laws need many reforms to make protections real – including a properly resourced whistleblower protection authority. But reform of public disclosure rules is especially critical.</p>
<h2>The latest laws to protect whistleblowers don’t go far enough</h2>
<p>The government’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-a-new-era-for-australias-whistleblowers-in-the-private-sector-119596">latest improvements</a> to whistleblower protection laws, for the private sector, try to recognise the principle that whistleblowers should remain protected if they need to go public.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-a-new-era-for-australias-whistleblowers-in-the-private-sector-119596">It's a new era for Australia's whistleblowers – in the private sector</a>
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<p>The improvements include a “three-tiered” approach to protect internal, regulatory and public disclosures. Pioneered in NSW, and expanded in the UK, this is now reflected in seven of Australia’s nine public sector whistleblowing laws, as well as amendments to the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00216">Corporations Act</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/main_mrtitle_767_homepage.html">Legislation</a> from Western Australia uses a simple test to determine when public whistleblowing should be protected. Protection applies wherever an agency has refused to investigate, has not completed an investigation within six months, or has investigated but failed to recommend action. </p>
<p>But the equivalent federal law has been crippled by blanket prohibitions on certain types of information, especially anything connected with national security or “intelligence”, since inception in 2013.</p>
<p>Now, these <a href="https://theconversation.com/four-laws-that-need-urgent-reform-to-protect-both-national-security-and-press-freedom-118994">fundamental flaws</a> in our laws are embarrassing everyone from the AFP to the government itself, triggering criminal investigations and charges against whistleblowers, irrespective of the public interest.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/four-laws-that-need-urgent-reform-to-protect-both-national-security-and-press-freedom-118994">Four laws that need urgent reform to protect both national security and press freedom</a>
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<h2>Punishment for revealing any intelligence information, any at all</h2>
<p>These flaws mean fraud, corruption or criminal behaviour in any activity vaguely touched by intelligence agency functions cannot be revealed to the public, even when the same disclosure about any other agency would be protected.</p>
<p>The key problem is section 41 of the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00026">Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013</a> (PID Act). It says protection can never be given to someone who revealed “intelligence information” to the public. This is defined as anything which “has originated with, or has been received from, an intelligence agency”. </p>
<p>It doesn’t matter how grievous the wrongdoing was – or even that revealing it would not actually harm any security or intelligence interests. If it is connected in any way to the agency, the whistleblower will still be punished.</p>
<p>The same is true of the poorly-named exclusion of “inherently harmful information” from disclosure under sections 121 and 122 of the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00043/Html/Volume_1">Criminal Code</a>. </p>
<p>Contrary to its name, the information excluded from whistleblower protection doesn’t necessarily need to be harmful. Instead, it refers to any information with security classification, or, like the PID act, any record “obtained by, or made by or on behalf of” an intelligence agency.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-are-the-media-companies-challenges-to-the-afp-raids-about-119382">Explainer: what are the media companies' challenges to the AFP raids about?</a>
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<p>The inappropriateness of these blanket exclusions was vividly confirmed last week. <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/peter-dutton-orders-afp-to-lift-the-bar-for-investigating-journalists-ahead-of-major-inquiry-20190809-p52fos.html">Peter Dutton directed the AFP</a> to only investigate secrecy breaches by journalists when the case includes:</p>
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<p>a harm statement indicating the extent to which the disclosure is expected to significantly compromise Australia’s national security.</p>
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<p>But why is this “harm test” not already the basis of the law in the first place?</p>
<p>Unless we extend the protections applying to public whistleblowing, we cannot expect the public to take the rest of our whistleblowing regimes seriously. And the effect will be chilling on all reporting of wrongdoing on which public integrity daily depends.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121555/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A J Brown and his research team receives funding from the Australian Research Council and many other partner organisations including the Commonwealth Ombudsman and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (see <a href="http://www.whistlingwhiletheywork.edu.au">www.whistlingwhiletheywork.edu.au</a>). He is also a boardmember of Transparency International and Transparency International Australia, and was a member of the Commonwealth Government's Ministerial Expert Advisory Panel on Whistleblowing (2017-2019). </span></em></p>Australian laws make it inevitable for whistleblowers to be charged whenever national security might be involved, even when the information is in the public interest.A J Brown, Professor of Public Policy & Law, Centre for Governance & Public Policy, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1132982019-03-18T09:33:32Z2019-03-18T09:33:32ZWhy science matters so much in the era of fake news and fallacies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263351/original/file-20190312-86696-qqd56h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If it's fake, it's not news.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Democracy and social progress die without science and fact-based knowledge. Science and facts are the foundational basis for rational and logical disputation and the possibility of reaching some truths. </p>
<p>Fake news, on the other hand, is a calculated assault on <a href="https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/journalism_fake_news_disinformation_print_friendly_0.pdf">democratic freedoms</a>. </p>
<p>The power of the notion of fake news and of its practitioners is demonstrated by how we have all quickly come to accept that there is a category of news called fake news. By doing so, we are running the real risk of being complicit in its legitimisation. My point is: if it’s fake then it’s not news. There is news, and then there is fake stuff, dodgy facts, distortions and lies. </p>
<p>So what’s the connection between science, knowledge and facts? </p>
<h2>What makes good science</h2>
<p>Science is one important means of producing knowledge and getting to what approximates the truth. Good science results from rigorous processes. Part of the rigour in science and knowledge creation is the peer review process, which is a means of ensuring not only the correctness of facts, but also transparency. </p>
<p>Science must generally also meet the test of <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8234/7207a1f94c1c3891ee18b151dc1abb41ca56.pdf">replicability</a>. These days data used in scientific experiments often also has to be preserved so it can be assessed or analysed if results are disputed. Ethical norms also govern scientific experiments to prevent harm. </p>
<p>Science is not the absolute truth. Scientific findings are the beginning, not the end, of the quest for truth. Empirical data used in science that can be verified forms a sound basis for robust discussion, debate and decision-making. Science brings a degree of rationality that creates a higher probability that the best interest of society or the public interest will be taken into account in, for example, decision-making. </p>
<p>Science, then, is the habit of exercising the mind to help think through especially difficult and complex phenomena. </p>
<p>This makes science important in the exercise of democracy. This isn’t possible without facts and information that enable – or aid – voters to make an informed choice in elections, for example, or help the making of sound policies that best promote the public interest. Science also enables discerning members of the public to make sense of their worlds and the world. </p>
<h2>So-called fake news</h2>
<p>Fake news, on other hand, is a set of at worst, manufactured or concocted facts that are a perversion of reality. It is the direct antithesis of science.</p>
<p>But fake news isn’t new. It’s as old as news itself and has a variety of aims, including propaganda and spin doctoring. It can be argued that the growth of spin doctoring in the 1990s is the precursor to the exponential growth of fakery. It has also been enabled by the decline of content that enriches public discourse in the context of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276025568_Mass_media_and_globalization">commercialisation and concentration</a> of media since the 1980s. </p>
<p>These developments led to a decline in the influence of public interest media or media that strikes the balance between commercial enterprise and the public good. And this has led to the reduction in the kind of news and media content that focuses on science. </p>
<p>Science journalism and investigative journalism, in particular, have seriously declined. This has meant that the ability to shine a light on the dark areas of lack of knowledge, superstition, and myths has seriously been diminished. </p>
<p>Specialist reporting is now confined to the content-rich ghettos of those who are highly educated or interested. </p>
<p>Another reason for the growth of fake news and its increasing influence is the loss of confidence in public institutions, including media institutions and the profession of journalism. Fakery has risen to fill the vacuum, driven by individuals and political organisations who position themselves as messiahs with instant solutions to multiple social crises. In their discourse knowledge institutions, science, facts, evidence, experts and reason or rationality are thrown out of the window as the sophistry of the elite. </p>
<h2>The role of social media</h2>
<p>Digital technologies and social media have made it much easier to produce and disseminate fake news. It is a paradox: unprecedented scientific advances and technologies are enabling us to transcend traditional constraints of distribution and literally place information at people’s fingertips. Yet these same technologies seem to facilitate more fake news and information that doesn’t necessarily advance the public good. </p>
<p>In addition, social media largely exists outside the professional norms of fact checking and the use of evidence to support assertions, arguments and positions taken in relation to social phenomena. </p>
<p>Fact checking and peer review are more important than ever because of the reality that false information now flows freely. This can be extremely harmful, particularly in <a href="http://www.publichealthdorset.org.uk/fake-news-the-future-of-public-health-messaging/">public health campaigns</a>. </p>
<p>The attraction of fake news is its apparent simplicity. It has a ring of truth around its claims, even when these are outlandish, and its ability to seem to resonate with what people think are their life-worlds or everyday life. Its ability to reinforce stereotypes, including prejudices, makes a bad situation even worse.</p>
<h2>Science, facts and knowledge will save humanity</h2>
<p>Science journalism and investigative journalism which seek to pursue the truth rather than just the reporting of events, are critically important in this age of fake news and fallacies. </p>
<p>It is not an exaggeration to say that the sustainability of the idea of humanity and the environment in the broadest sense of the word depends on science – or the respect for facts, evidence and experts. </p>
<p>Science that allows the public to have a nuanced understanding of life is important to building inclusive, open societies that enable public participation in decision making and progressive social agendas. Science disseminated in ways that are understood by the public and resonate with their life-worlds is important for building trust in reformed institutions and creating new forms of social cohesion in diverse societies. </p>
<p><em>This address was delivered by Professor Tawana Kupe, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria, ahead of a panel discussion presented in partnership with The Conversation Africa at Future Africa on Monday 11 March 2019.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113298/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tawana Kupe is affiliated with the following organisations: Media Monitoring Africa, a media advocacy NGO (Non-executive Chairman of the Board); and Amabhungane Investigative Journalism Organisation (Non-executive Chairman of the Board).</span></em></p>Science is not the absolute truth. Scientific findings are the beginning, not the end, of the quest for truth.Tawana Kupe, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1113462019-02-13T19:17:35Z2019-02-13T19:17:35ZOne-third of Australians think banks do nothing for the greater public good<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258639/original/file-20190213-90479-18h4036.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In a survey of 1,000 Australians, 35.4% agreed banking and financial institutions show 'no leadership for the greater good'.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The leaders of our banks and financial institutions are seen as the most self-serving in the nation, according to a national survey undertaken by researchers at Swinburne University of Technology.</p>
<p>More than a third (35.4%) of respondents believe banking and financial institutions show “no leadership for the greater good”. This score is slightly worse than public perceptions of the Federal Government, substantially worse than religious institutions and significantly worse than trade unions.</p>
<p>The results, from a nationally representative sample of 1,000 Australians, also repudiate the <a href="https://www.ausbanking.org.au/media/media-releases/media-release-2018/banks-making-progress-in-delivering-better-customer-outcomes">Australian Banking Association’s claim</a> a year ago that “Australians believe banks are heading in the right direction”.</p>
<p>And given this survey was done in December 2018, before the <a href="https://financialservices.royalcommission.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx">Banking Royal Commission</a> had completed its work exposing misconduct in the financial services sector, it’s likely a future poll will show even greater community distrust of bankers.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/banking-royal-commission-no-commissions-no-exemptions-no-fees-without-permission-hayne-gets-the-government-to-do-a-u-turn-110974">Banking Royal Commission: no commissions, no exemptions, no fees without permission. Hayne gets the government to do a U-turn</a>
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<h2>Transparency and accountability are crucial</h2>
<p>Our findings come from the initial results of the Australian Leadership Index, a new quarterly survey from the Swinburne Business School that measures and tracks community perceptions and expectations of leadership for the greater good across 13 societal institutions.</p>
<p>The index won’t be officially published until later in the year. But given the important public discussion about corporate leadership in the wake of the <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/publication/p2019-fsrc-final-report/">final report</a> of the banking royal commission, we think it’s useful to share a snapshot of our findings. </p>
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<p>Consistent with other <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/financial-services/articles/deloitte-trust-index-banking-survey.html?utm_source=wp&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=fsi-deloitte-trust-index-2018&utm_content=web">studies</a> that highlight the importance of transparency and accountability to perceptions of trust, our research confirms the importance of these attributes to perceptions of leadership for the public good. </p>
<p>From a community perspective, leadership for the greater good occurs when leaders demonstrate high ethical standards, when they demonstrate transparency and accountability for their positive and negative impacts, and when they seek to balance the interests of multiple stakeholders, including the wider community in which their institutions are nested.</p>
<p>So, leadership for the greater good is reflected in what value leaders create, how they create value, and for whom they create value.</p>
<p>Unhappily, banking leaders are found wanting on all counts.</p>
<h2>The importance of how value is created</h2>
<p>But other institutions are also found wanting, with our results revealing a generalised pessimism about Australian leadership.</p>
<p>Our survey results shed light on where the public think leaders are failing and what the community expects of leaders and their institutions to serve the greater good.</p>
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<p>Notably, creating economic value is not a highly regarded aspect of leadership for the greater good. This is not to say it is unimportant. But on its own it is insufficient.</p>
<p>What looms largest in the public mind when thinking about the greater good is the social value that institutions create, how ethically they create this value, and their transparency and accountability for positive and negative impacts.</p>
<p>Our research demonstrates that leadership for the greater good is as much about <em>how</em> leaders create value for their stakeholders — from their employees to their customers to society-at-large — as it is about <em>what</em> value they create and <em>for whom</em> they create value.</p>
<p>It’s not hugely complicated.</p>
<p>And yet, as revealed by the endless, unedifying parade of misconduct in government, business, religious, sporting and other civil society institutions, community standards and expectations are too often observed in the breach.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-banking-regulators-can-learn-from-deepwater-horizon-and-other-industrial-catastrophes-108989">What banking regulators can learn from Deepwater Horizon and other industrial catastrophes</a>
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<p>In the wake of the banking royal commission, the Australian community has a golden opportunity for a thoroughgoing discussion about the leadership we need to protect and enhance the public interest.</p>
<p>We hope the Australian Leadership Index will contribute to that discussion, by making all our data freely accessible through a new data visualisation platform. This will enable easy tracking of how institutions are performing according to public perceptions of their impact on the public good.</p>
<p>Wise leaders focus on the greater good. It behoves all leaders to create this new culture of public leadership.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111346/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Wilson receives philanthropic funding for the Australian Leadership Index.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Pallant receives philanthropic funding for the Australian Leadership Index.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Colin Bednall receives philanthropic funding for the Australian Leadership Index.</span></em></p>More than a third (35.4%) of respondents surveyed by the Australian Leadership Index believe banking and financial institutions show “no leadership for the greater good”.Samuel Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Management, Swinburne University of TechnologyJason Pallant, Lecturer of Marketing, Swinburne University of TechnologyTimothy Colin Bednall, Senior Lecturer in Management, Fellow of the APS College of Organisational Psychologists, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/824852017-10-02T00:52:53Z2017-10-02T00:52:53ZThree steps Congress could take to help resolve the net neutrality debate – without legislating a fix<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185727/original/file-20170912-5947-edpnhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is it time for Congress to act?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Capitol_Building_Full_View.jpg">Noclip</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The public debate over how best to keep the internet open and free – and what exactly that means – has dragged on for more than a decade. The principle that internet service providers should deliver all online content without favoritism carries with it complex <a href="http://assets.wharton.upenn.edu/%7Efaulhabe/Econ_Net_Neut_Review.pdf">economic</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/thorny-technical-questions-remain-for-net-neutrality-61478">technological</a> and <a href="https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/3AF8B4D938CDEEA685257C6000532062/%24file/11-1355-1474943.pdf">legal questions</a>. </p>
<p>In 2015, the Federal Communications Commission issued its <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-releases-open-internet-order">Open Internet Order</a>, requiring transparency and banning blocking, throttling of content and paid prioritization – that is, offering higher-quality service at a price. Under its current chairman, Ajit Pai, the FCC proposes to <a href="https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-344614A1.pdf">revise and reverse</a> some or all of these rules. Both in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/01/20/eight-reasons-to-support-congresss-net-neutrality-bill/">run-up to the 2015 order</a> and since this current proposal for reconsideration, many have <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2017/09/05/world/molly-net-neutrality">called for Congress to step in</a> <a href="http://www.cfmediaview.com/lp1.aspx?v=6_2606270879_117430_7">for the first time</a>.</p>
<p>Without legislating specific net neutrality rules, Congress could take three important steps to clear away irrelevant legal impediments and make the debate more productive for regulators and the public alike.</p>
<h2>Separate classification from regulation</h2>
<p>Some of the problems of devising net neutrality rules come from the fact that Congress defined legislative categories that had more to do with the 1984 breakup of AT&T’s telephone monopoly than the still largely nascent internet. In the <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/general/telecommunications-act-1996">Telecommunications Act of 1996</a>, Congress classified communications businesses as engaged in either “telecommunications” or “information” services – either operating the wires that the data flow through or providing the data. Congress decreed that only the former were subject to regulation of prices, access and services – under <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/chapter-5/subchapter-II">Title II</a> of the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/chapter-5">Communications Act of 1934</a>.</p>
<p>That congressional decision is why the debate is laced with contentions about whether ISPs should be classified as either telecommunications or information service providers. Those contentions aren’t new; 15 years ago a relatively deregulation-minded FCC classified broadband cable service as an <a href="https://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/News_Releases/2002/nrcb0201.html">information service, not subject to regulation</a>. And in 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/pdf/04-277P.ZO">the FCC could determine how to classify</a> broadband internet. But Justice Antonin Scalia dissented, saying the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/pdf/04-277P.ZD">clear that broadband internet was a telecommunications service</a> – and that the FCC couldn’t decide otherwise.</p>
<p>The FCC’s 2015 Order “reclassified” broadband service as a telecommunications service, to give it the legal authority the <a href="https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/3AF8B4D938CDEEA685257C6000532062/$file/11-1355-1474943.pdf">D.C. Court of Appeals said the FCC needed</a> to enact its net neutrality rules. The current FCC proposes, in effect, to “re-reclassify” broadband as an information service. The commission’s announcement of that move involves some excruciating legal contortions, not to oppose the economic substance of the FCC’s 2015 order but to come up with a convincing argument against Justice Scalia’s 2005 dissent. </p>
<p>Congress can fix this mess. The economic case for whether and how a firm should be regulated has nothing to do with what service it provides. Rather, the question should be about economic fundamentals: Is the company a monopoly? Or does competition from alternative suppliers impose reasonable market pressures on price and service quality? And can the regulator get demand, quality and cost information in a sufficiently timely manner to be able to set reasonable prices and terms of service? </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 ignored economics and relied on service classifications instead, precluding findings that an information service should be regulated – or that a telecommunications service market is sufficiently competitive to render regulation unnecessary. Returning regulatory determinations to their economic foundations is the first order of legislative business.</p>
<h2>Restore a focus on the ‘public interest’</h2>
<p>But is net neutrality really about economic regulation? While thinking clearly about net neutrality rules requires eliminating classification, looking at the issue solely in terms of regulating monopolies may be looking in the wrong place. In recent years, during both Republican and Democratic administrations, the FCC has tended to assess all communications policy issues in terms of whether <a href="https://www.law360.com/articles/883166/fcc-s-wheeler-signs-off-with-competition-mantra">internet sector practices</a> violate antitrust laws. By and large, the arguments based on competition, or economics more generally, <a href="http://www.freestatefoundation.org/images/Is_the_Open_Internet_Order_an_Economics_Free_Zone_062816.pdf">are not all that compelling</a>.</p>
<p>Regarding net neutrality, a much better role for the FCC would be to focus on the public interest. One example comes from the observation, by open-internet advocate <a href="https://www.publicknowledge.org/about-us/staff/#Harold">Harold Feld</a> at the communications policy nonprofit <a href="https://www.publicknowledge.org/">Public Knowledge</a>, noting how important it was for <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2012/11/28/role-social-media-arab-uprisings/">Arab Spring protesters</a> to communicate on social media. While the FCC’s jurisdiction does not extend to Egypt, the ability for the public to freely share news and ideas through the internet is no less important in the U.S.</p>
<p>In retrospect, the FCC made a mistake by treating net neutrality as a competition problem rather than as a tool to protect speech. Because speech rights were never central in the FCC’s net neutrality review, there is no record of what, if any, policies would be necessary or effective to protect people’s rights to communicate. The current regulations might be sufficient or excessive, but until evaluated under a “public interest” standard, we do not know.</p>
<p>Congress should remind the FCC of its obligations to evaluate the public interest consequences – not just the economics – of its regulations.</p>
<h2>Restore the role of antitrust in telecommunications</h2>
<p>Focusing the FCC on the public interest would be easier if the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/atr">Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division</a> or the <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/bureaus-offices/bureau-competition">Federal Trade Commission</a> could guard against internet service providers engaging in monopolistic practices. </p>
<p>At present, the antitrust agencies may not have that authority. In 2004, the Supreme Court ruled that if a regulator has authority over a practice (in that case, the FCC’s authority over how telephone companies open their facilities to competitors, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/pdf/02-682P.ZO">antitrust laws should not apply</a>. That decision came despite an explicit clause in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.478129">preserving an antitrust role</a> for the FCC.</p>
<p>I do not expect that internet service providers following regulations grounded in the public’s rights to speak and be heard would violate antitrust laws. Congress should make it clear to the Supreme Court and the public that antitrust authorities do have the power to review the facts and remedy any competition problems or harm to consumers.</p>
<p>If Congress could enact legislation that removed the distinction between “telecommunication” and “information” services, reinforced the importance of the public interest in communications and restored antitrust enforcement power for regulators, the FCC would be better able to develop net neutrality regulations – whatever they may turn out to be – with solid substantive and legal foundations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82485/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Brennan was chief economist at the Federal Communications Commission during 2014, and did some unrelated consulting work for the FCC on the AT&T/DirecTV merger during the first half of 2015. </span></em></p>As the issue of an open and free internet again comes up for public debate, Congress could participate – and help regulators devise a workable set of policies.Timothy Brennan, Professor of Public Policy and Economics, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/842782017-09-21T19:42:57Z2017-09-21T19:42:57ZWhose interests? Why defining the ‘public interest’ is such a challenge<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186736/original/file-20170920-910-y2p3r0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What may be deemed in the public interest today may not be so in a decade's time.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The “public interest” is a political concept that’s regularly trotted out along with other democratic principles such as transparency and accountability. And, like transparency and accountability, it’s difficult to pin down exactly what it means.</p>
<p>Deputy NSW Ombudsman <a href="http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AIAdminLawF/2006/2.pdf">Chris Wheeler</a> has pointed out:</p>
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<p>… while it is one of the most used terms in the lexicon of public administration, it is arguably the least defined and least understood … identifying or determining the appropriate public interest in any particular case is often no easy task.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Centuries of scholarship examine the public interest alongside the “common good”, “common interest”, and “public good”, associated with some big names in political philosophy. Common among their thinking was the idea that governments should serve the people, and the people should be the beneficiaries of governing.</p>
<h2>Why is the public interest so hard to define?</h2>
<p>The public interest is such a complex and tricky concept to navigate because it has intentionally evolved as ambiguous and mutable. It has no overarching definition because it is contextually determined in scope and purpose. </p>
<p>This means, in any particular instance, political, legal and regulatory authorities make judgement calls. And what may be deemed in the public interest today may not be in a decade; it changes with social mores and values. </p>
<p>For example, during the UK’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/an-inquiry-into-the-culture-practices-and-ethics-of-the-press-executive-summary">Leveson Inquiry</a> into the media, the public interest came under close scrutiny. The inquiry found media practice should better reflect the contemporary views of the British public. </p>
<p>As Guardian blogger Andrew Sparrow <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/20/open-door-definition-public-interest">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>50 years ago it was assumed that there was a public interest in knowing that an MP was gay, but little or no public interest in whether he drove home drunk, hit his wife or furnished his house using wood from non-sustainable sources. Now, obviously, it’s the other way round.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Legal bodies and judgements also steer clear of definitions. The <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/8-balancing-privacy-other-interests/meaning-public-interest">Australian Law Reform Commission</a> has expressly noted: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Public interest should not be defined. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And, in a Federal Court Freedom of Information case, justice Brian Tamberlin <a href="https://jade.io/article/99792">wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The public interest is not one homogenous undivided concept. It will often be multi-faceted and the decision-maker will have to consider and evaluate the relative weight of these facets before reaching a final conclusion as to where the public interest resides.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Most will never have reason or occasion to engage with the public interest in an official sense; we leave that to politicians, officials, judges, heads of inquiries, and so on. Wheeler places the onus squarely on their shoulders:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Public officials have an overarching obligation to act in the public interest.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Public interest is about more than compliance</h2>
<p>Monday night’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2017/09/14/4733836.htm">Four Corners</a> program put the Gold Coast City Council and its “developers, donations and big decisions” under a public interest spotlight.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zz2R33AYfVY?wmode=transparent&start=954" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">ABC Four Corners program All That Glitters.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What was intriguing about the program was the conflation of the public interest with “real or perceived conflicts of interest” as relating to development issues. </p>
<p>Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate and his deputy, Donna Gates, both described staying in council chambers to participate in discussion and vote on development issues citing the “public interest” as holding overriding importance. </p>
<p>Giving evidence before the Crime and Corruption Commission, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-18/gold-coast-deputy-mayor-votes-in-favour-of-donor-development/8940600">Gates said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have, in the main, stayed in the room to vote in the public interest because I firmly believe that that’s what I need to do.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Journalist Mark Willacy and Tate pointed out that all behaviour is legally compliant. Willacy concluded:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What’s happening with development here is well within the law and to many that’s the problem.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But (despite its lack of definition) the public interest should mean more than legal compliance – it is as much about process and procedure as it is outcome. It’s also about governance and ethics. </p>
<p>Wheeler lists seven elements that better round out the full process that should take place:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>complying with applicable law (both its letter <em>and spirit</em>);</p></li>
<li><p>carrying out functions fairly and impartially;</p></li>
<li><p>complying with the principles of procedural fairness/natural justice;</p></li>
<li><p>acting reasonably;</p></li>
<li><p>ensuring accountability and transparency;</p></li>
<li><p>exposing corrupt conduct or serious maladministration;</p></li>
<li><p>avoiding or properly managing private interests conflicting with official duties; and</p></li>
<li><p>acting apolitically in the performance of official functions.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>There’s no rule book for working in the public interest and, despite arguments that it is too loose, ambiguous and easy to hide behind, it is an integral part of the discourse, law, regulation and governance of modern democracies. </p>
<p>Some professions, such as the <a href="https://www.icaew.com/technical/ethics/the-public-interest">Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales</a>, have tackled it head-on. This would seem a prudent measure for all professions in the future.</p>
<p><em>* Correction: This article was updated on January 23, 2019, to amend the title of Deputy NSW Ombudsman Chris Wheeler, who was previously named as the former ombudsman.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84278/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Johnston does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite arguments that it is too loose, ambiguous and easy to hide behind, the ‘public interest’ is an integral part of the discourse, law, regulation and governance of modern democracies.Jane Johnston, Associate Professor in Communication and Public Relations, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/768292017-07-19T06:43:00Z2017-07-19T06:43:00ZHow to make sure we all benefit when nonprofits patent technologies like CRISPR<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178710/original/file-20170718-10308-1vh9sh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are research nonprofits holding up their end of the tax-exempt bargain?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cthulhuwho1/3805687772">Will Hart</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities and other nonprofit research institutions are <a href="http://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/obamacare-cleveland-clinic-non-profit-hospital-taxes/">under increasing fire</a> about their commitments to the public interest. In return for tax-exempt status, their work is supposed to benefit society.</p>
<p>But are they really operating in the public interest when they wield their patent rights in ways that constrict research? Or when potentially lifesaving inventions are priced so high that access is limited? The public partially underwrites nonprofit discoveries via tax breaks and isn’t seeing a lot of benefit in return.</p>
<p>Questions like these arose recently in the case of CRISPR, the promising new gene-editing technology. After patenting it, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard sold the exclusive right to develop CRISPR-based therapies to its sister company <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/12/19/editas-licenses-new-gene-editing-tool-raising-stakes-drug-development-race/VYRzmMHq4igAaBVrox1TsL/story.html">Editas Medicine</a>. <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2017/04/25/broad-institute-nonprofit-crispr/">Critics worry</a> that this monopoly could limit important research and result in exorbitant prices on emerging treatments.</p>
<p>We’ve seen this situation before: For example, Xtandi, a prostate cancer drug <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-ucla-drug-royalties-20160304-story.html">developed and patented</a> by researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/congress-taking-on-xtandi-price-2016-3">now costs</a> US$129,000 for a course of treatment. </p>
<p>Nonprofit research institutions <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-uc-patents-20151011-story.html">usually argue</a> that any revenues they receive from their patents are reinvested in research and education. They contend this approach ensures that new technologies become widely available in the marketplace.</p>
<p>But I argue that nonprofit institutions can and should do better. At a moment of <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/03/16/520390026/one-way-to-force-down-drug-prices-have-the-u-s-exercise-its-patent-rights">spiraling drug costs</a> and <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/29/public-and-scientists-views-on-science-and-society/">declining trust</a> in our science and technology policy institutions, they must develop a more sensitive and systematic way of thinking about the public interest in their intellectual property strategies. I offer one possible path.</p>
<h2>The logic of licensing</h2>
<p>Nonprofit research institutions’ understanding of the public interest is based on a <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo25338584.html">U.S. innovation logic</a> that dates back to the country’s founding. <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-early-expression-of-democracy-the-us-patent-system-is-out-of-step-with-todays-citizens-43812">Early patent laws</a> encouraged all citizens to participate in the system. The more people who took advantage of the exclusive property rights afforded by a patent, the thinking went, the more robust the private sector, the more economic growth and the more new technologies available.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178282/original/file-20170714-14267-r2981q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C1155%2C4058%2C3001&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178282/original/file-20170714-14267-r2981q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C1155%2C4058%2C3001&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178282/original/file-20170714-14267-r2981q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178282/original/file-20170714-14267-r2981q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178282/original/file-20170714-14267-r2981q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178282/original/file-20170714-14267-r2981q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178282/original/file-20170714-14267-r2981q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178282/original/file-20170714-14267-r2981q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 1980 Bayh-Dole Act clarified that nonprofits like the Broad Institute can own patents based on federally funded research.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.broadinstitute.org/photos-broad-institute/photos-broad-institute">Peter Vanderwarker</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This logic guided passage of the 1980 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2009.07.007">Bayh-Dole Act</a>, which lets universities, small businesses and nonprofits own patents for inventions and discoveries that stem from federally funded research.</p>
<p>The law was triggered by <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9619.html">policymakers’ concerns</a> that companies were hesitating to commercialize federally funded inventions. Because the federal government paid for the research, it was unclear who – if anyone – owned the inventions that resulted. Companies worried that because the research results were in the public domain and unprotected by patents, they’d face competition and limited profits if they decided to develop a technology further. </p>
<p>But if nonprofits and small businesses could patent the inventions they developed, then they could exclusively license these inventions and defuse the threat of competition. Both the research institutions and companies would benefit. So too would the public because it would gain access to new technologies. It seemed like a win-win-win.</p>
<h2>Licenses are first step to profits</h2>
<p>In the wake of Bayh-Dole, many research institutions <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/university-start-ups-critical-for-improving-technology-transfer/">created technology transfer offices</a> to help faculty and staff patent and sell their innovations. These offices secure patents and then work to license the patented inventions and discoveries. The licenses come in two flavors. “Exclusive” means the company will have the sole license to develop the invention. “Non-exclusive” allows the university to sell multiple licenses on a single patented invention.</p>
<p>Exclusive licenses, like those negotiated by the Broad and UCLA in the cases of CRISPR and Xtandi, are common, but also controversial. Perhaps most famous is the exclusive license on <a href="http://som.yale.edu/case/2017/zerit">Zerit</a>, an important AIDS drug produced by researchers at Yale University. In 1998, Yale licensed its Zerit patent to Bristol Myers Squibb. The pharmaceutical company developed the drug further and eventually priced it so high that it was unaffordable for many in the developing world, where the AIDS crisis was severe.</p>
<p>Doctors without Borders, working with Yale students, successfully <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/12/world/yale-pressed-to-help-cut-drug-costs-in-africa.html">pressured</a> the Yale administration to allow a South African company to create a generic version of the drug, and the price dropped by <a href="http://uaem.org/cms/assets/uploads/2013/03/UAEM_History_1_2011_Transition_DocumentFINAL.doc">96 percent</a>. This activism spawned the advocacy group <a href="http://www.uaem.org">Universities Allied for Essential Medicines</a>, which now operates 100 chapters in 18 countries across the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178275/original/file-20170714-3488-pmxzfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178275/original/file-20170714-3488-pmxzfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178275/original/file-20170714-3488-pmxzfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178275/original/file-20170714-3488-pmxzfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178275/original/file-20170714-3488-pmxzfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178275/original/file-20170714-3488-pmxzfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178275/original/file-20170714-3488-pmxzfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178275/original/file-20170714-3488-pmxzfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Researchers in UAEM advocate for better access to medications, which means rethinking patent licensing on what comes out of their labs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lachiquita/3248063888">Gloria</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Holding back on some licenses</h2>
<p>Companies usually expect universities to sell them exclusive licenses to exploit their patents. They’re banking on the big profits that presumably come from having a monopoly on a valuable technology. Universities usually acquiesce because they too want to make the product available and generate maximum revenue.</p>
<p>But some universities have responded to UAEM’s activism. For instance, Harvard now <a href="http://otd.harvard.edu/upload/files/Sample_Global_Access_Language.pdf">reserves its right</a> to license patents nonexclusively for humanitarian purposes in low-income countries. It accepts the potential for a smaller revenue stream as a trade-off for lower drug prices and greater accessibility. Such provisions would come in handy for patents on <a href="http://www.msf.org/en/article/access-campaign-public-health-groups-welcome-johns-hopkins-university-and-medicines-patent">essential medicines</a> that could, say, cure Zika or HIV/AIDS. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, in other areas that raise significant moral, environmental and public health concerns, nonprofit research institutions are experimenting with “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3756">ethical licensing</a>.” To prevent the abuse of their patented technologies, these licenses come with limits.</p>
<p>The Broad Institute’s exclusive licenses on the CRISPR technologies, for example, have multiple restrictions. Licensees may not use the gene-editing technology to modify human embryos, alter the ecosystem or <a href="http://gizmodo.com/monsanto-just-got-access-to-the-world-s-most-powerful-g-1786998287">grow stronger tobacco plants</a>. The Broad Institute’s approach is <a href="https://theconversation.com/crispr-dispute-raises-bigger-patent-issues-that-were-not-talking-about-56715">not a systematic or transparent one</a>, though. It’s not clear, for example, how or why the organization decided on these restrictions, and under what circumstances it would decide to issue restrictions on its other patents.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178731/original/file-20170718-10341-1mp7ith.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178731/original/file-20170718-10341-1mp7ith.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178731/original/file-20170718-10341-1mp7ith.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178731/original/file-20170718-10341-1mp7ith.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178731/original/file-20170718-10341-1mp7ith.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178731/original/file-20170718-10341-1mp7ith.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178731/original/file-20170718-10341-1mp7ith.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178731/original/file-20170718-10341-1mp7ith.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A proposal to make sure the public interest retains a seat at the table.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/143842337@N03/32590257662">thoroughlyreviewed.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A better solution</h2>
<p>While promising, these efforts are still rare and ad hoc. I propose a better, more methodical, solution. Stand-alone nonprofit research institutions, universities and university-based hospitals should create intellectual property governance committees that would review pending patents and licenses. These committees would include not just patent lawyers, but also experts on innovation in its social, economic and historical context, ethicists and members of the public. </p>
<p>There’s a good precedent for this approach. In the latter part of the 20th century, in response to revelations of unethical biomedical research conducted by university faculty, the federal government began to require that all institutions getting federal funds <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo12182576.html">develop a research ethics infrastructure</a>. Now all federally funded research in the U.S. involving human subjects – no matter what kind of institution conducts it – must be approved by an <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18811996">institutional review board</a>. These are made up of scientists, lawyers, at least one member of the public and others with expertise in the responsible conduct of research. </p>
<p>Similarly, the intellectual property governance committees I’m proposing would help ensure that society benefits from the patenting and licensing practices of these tax-exempt institutions. They would also build public trust, strengthening the case that these institutions deserve their tax breaks.</p>
<p>Suppose researchers at a nonprofit research institution develop a drug that treats opioid addiction. The drug would clearly have major societal benefit, since it could save some of the <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2017/06/27/opioid-deaths-forecast/">500,000 Americans</a> the disease is projected to kill within 10 years. An intellectual property governance committee could recommend that the institution negotiate only nonexclusive licenses on the drug – in turn fostering research, competition and lower prices. In addition, the committee might advocate a narrowly written patent to encourage related innovation.</p>
<p>Whether or not they embrace this idea, universities and nonprofit biomedical research institutions need to hold up their end of the societal bargain more carefully. If they don’t, they’re likely to face greater controversy and even more questions about whether they really deserve their special status.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76829/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shobita Parthasarathy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Holding patents can be a lucrative and powerful position to be in. Here’s a proposal for how nonprofit patent holders can do more for the common good – and live up to their end of the tax break bargain.Shobita Parthasarathy, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Women's Studies, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/751202017-03-28T22:06:51Z2017-03-28T22:06:51ZTrump’s FCC continues to redefine the public interest as business interests<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162940/original/image-20170328-3798-jcvd7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Speak up!</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/vector-illustration-website-horizontal-banner-concept-464473052">Speech bubbles via shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. Senate voted last week to <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/24/517050966/fcc-chairman-goes-after-his-predecessors-internet-privacy-rules">allow internet service providers</a> to <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/03/23/senate-overturns-an-obama-era-regulation-to-protect-your-privacy-online/">sell data about their customers’ online activities</a> to advertisers. The <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/for-sale-your-private-browsing-history/">House of Representatives</a> <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-resolution/230">agreed on Tuesday</a>; President Trump is <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/27/15073162/fcc-broadband-internet-privacy-rules-congress-vote">expected to sign</a> the measure into law.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/granule/USCODE-2011-title47/USCODE-2011-title47-chap4">As far back as 1927</a>, American lawmakers sought to balance the needs of the public against the desire of big telecommunications companies to make huge profits off delivering information to Americans nationwide. Today, the Federal Communications Commission is charged with ensuring that the broadcasting and telecommunications systems work in “<a href="https://www.fcc.gov/general/telecommunications-act-1996">the public interest, convenience and necessity</a>.”</p>
<p>Policymakers have struggled to specifically define “the public interest,” but the broad intent was clear: Government rules and programs worked to ensure a diversity of programming, distributed by a multitude of companies, with many different owners, through multiple channels that all Americans had access to.</p>
<p>While conducting research for my new book on <a href="http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/64kmn4yx9780252040726.html">local media policy in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada</a>, I watched as officials’ priorities changed, favoring what they say is “freer” competition in the marketplace of ideas. As new proposals come up for public comment and debate in the next few months, we, the American public, must join these discussions, to ensure our interests are in fact served.</p>
<h2>A shift in priorities</h2>
<p>Over the last 30 years, America’s communications regulators have moved away from focusing on society’s benefit, and toward an interpretation of the public interest as <a href="http://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/rise-and-fall-broadcasting-commons">equivalent to what businesses want</a>. For decades the FCC has chipped away at that broadly understood sense of the public interest, <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/general/20102014-media-ownership-rules-review">allowing more stations to be owned by one company</a>, <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/proceedings-actions/mergers-transactions/general/major-transaction-decisions">letting major media corporations merge</a> and <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/broadcast-radio-license-renewal">renewing station licenses</a> with a rubber stamp. And TV and radio stations are now allowed to be located <a href="http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2011/06/articles/what-do-the-fcc-main-studio-rules-require-recent-21000-fine-offers-some-clarification/">far away from the communities they serve</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, the national media system is dominated by a handful of companies, including <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6">Comcast, Time Warner, Fox and Disney</a>. This trend is mirrored at the local level, where Sinclair Broadcasting owns <a href="https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-342889A1.pdf">173 of the country’s 1,778 local television stations</a> and is on the <a href="http://nypost.com/2017/03/14/sinclair-tribune-merger-would-surpass-fcc-ownership-rules/">hunt to acquire more</a>.</p>
<p>These changes have seen media and telecommunications companies making money and acquiring more properties, while the public receives less and less in return.</p>
<h2>Moving quickly</h2>
<p>In addition to the moves in Congress, Trump’s FCC has acted quickly, too. Upon his promotion to FCC chairman, <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/about/leadership/ajit-pai">Ajit Pai</a> cited other companies’ fraudulent practices as a reason for <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/02/fcc-makes-it-harder-for-poor-people-to-get-subsidized-broadband/">removing nine internet service providers</a> from the list of companies approved to provide federally subsidized internet access to low-income families.</p>
<p>Pai also ended an investigation into <a href="https://www.wired.com/2017/02/fcc-oks-streaming-free-net-neutrality-will-pay/">mobile phone companies’ practice of exempting mobile data</a> associated with certain apps (such as Spotify or Netflix) from the data limits normally imposed on customers’ plans. Because this explicitly favored some companies’ internet traffic over others’, many people viewed this practice, called “zero rating,” as a violation of open internet (also called “<a href="https://www.publicknowledge.org/news-blog/blogs/what-happens-now-with-net-neutrality">net neutrality</a>”) rules – the FCC’s requirements barring internet service providers from playing favorites with different providers’ internet content.</p>
<p>Taken together, these actions represent a major attack on what is left of the public interest as we once knew it. They also represent a reversal for the FCC, which was <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/net-neutrality-appeals-court">hailed for protecting the public interest</a> when it approved the <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/general/open-internet">Open Internet Order</a> in 2015.</p>
<p>Pai himself <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ajit-pai-fcc-net-neutrality-trump-what-to-expect-2017-2">opposes those rules</a>, as does his congressional counterpart, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/01/enemy-of-net-neutrality-and-muni-broadband-will-chair-house-telecom-panel/">Marsha Blackburn</a>, chair of the powerful House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. </p>
<h2>Attacking broadcasting too</h2>
<p>The Trump administration also appears to be adhering to this view of the public interest in media policy. </p>
<p>Trump’s initial proposed budget <a href="http://current.org/2017/03/trump-budget-seeks-to-zero-out-cpb-funding-by-2018/">zeroed out federal funding for public broadcasting</a>. The U.S. allocates <a href="http://current.org/2017/03/cpb-says-trump-budget-will-aim-to-rescind-fy2018-appropriation/">US$445 million</a> a year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports organizations like NPR and PBS. That amounts to about <a href="https://www.freepress.net/blog/2017/03/16/presidents-attack-public-broadcasting-puts-him-odds-american-people">$1.35 per person</a>. In contrast, <a href="http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/_files/cbcrc/documents/latest-studies/nordicity-public-broadcaster-comparison-2016.pdf">Germany</a> spends $143 a person; Norway spends more on public broadcasting than any other country – $180 per Norwegian. Cutting this already anemic funding would spell disaster for public broadcasting, most notably stations in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/16/business/media/corporation-for-public-broadcasting-cuts.html">rural America</a>.</p>
<p>And over at the FCC, Pai eliminated <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/commission-eliminates-two-public-inspection-file-requirements/pai-statement">requirements that broadcasters keep records of what they aired, for public inspection</a>. While perhaps antiquated and <a href="http://archives.cjr.org/united_states_project/inspecting_local_tvs_public_in.php">certainly rarely used by the public</a>, it was one of the last holdovers of a time when <a href="http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/64kmn4yx9780252040726.html">local broadcasters</a> were thought to be responsive to their communities. </p>
<p>As for <a href="http://nypost.com/2017/03/14/sinclair-tribune-merger-would-surpass-fcc-ownership-rules/">Sinclair Broadcasting’s expansion hopes</a>, the company may be making its plans precisely because Commissioner Pai wants to <a href="http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/fcc-ajit-pai-media-ownership-1202008630/">relax ownership restrictions</a>. </p>
<h2>Stepping up to the mic?</h2>
<p>The next few months will see debates about a diverse range of communications-related topics, all of which center on the public interest. We need to ask hard, clear questions of legislators, regulators and ourselves:</p>
<p>Is it in the public’s interest to have an internet where ISPs can decide which websites load fastest? Is it in the public interest for <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/02/att-says-youll-love-more-relevant-advertising-after-time-warner-merger/">AT&T to buy Time Warner</a>, creating an even larger and more powerful media company? Is it in the public interest for <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/02/republican-led-fcc-drops-court-defense-of-inmate-calling-rate-cap/">incarcerated people</a> and their families to pay exorbitant sums to speak to one another on the phone? Is it in the public interest to retain access to public broadcasting, which brings us everything from “Sherlock” to “Sesame Street”? </p>
<p>Media is more than just our window on the world. It’s how we talk to each other, how we engage with our society and our government. Without a media environment that serves the public’s need to be informed, connected and involved, <a href="http://thenewpress.com/books/rich-media-poor-democracy">our democracy and our society will suffer</a>. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/nicholas-johnson/your-second-priority-a-former-fcc-commissioner-speaks-out/paperback/product-3028022.html">former FCC chairman Nicholas Johnson</a> put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Whatever is your first priority, whether it is women’s rights or saving wildlife, your second priority has to be media reform. With it you at least have a chance of accomplishing your first priority. Without it, you don’t have a prayer.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If only a few wealthy companies control how Americans communicate with each other, it will be harder for people to talk among ourselves about the kind of society we want to build.</p>
<p>It is time for a sustained public conversation about media policy, akin to the ones we have about health care, the economy, defense and the budget. Regulators and policymakers must communicate regularly to the public. News organizations must report on these issues with the same frequency and intensity as they do other areas of public policy. And the people must pay attention and make their voices heard. </p>
<p>We did it before, powerfully influencing rules about <a href="https://www.savetheinternet.com/release/156">media ownership in 2003</a> and <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/09/17/349243335/3-7-million-comments-later-heres-where-net-neutrality-stands">ensuring net neutrality in 2015</a>. We can do it again. For us, as members of the public, and as avid media consumers, it’s time the public got interested in the public interest.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75120/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Ali does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the Trump administration settles into office, regulators and lawmakers have big plans for shifting the country’s media landscape, with potentially profound effects on the public.Christopher Ali, Assistant Professor, Department of Media Studies, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/542272016-02-29T11:14:30Z2016-02-29T11:14:30ZWe helped uncover a public health crisis in Flint, but learned there are costs to doing good science<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112598/original/image-20160223-16455-xuunc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Virginia Tech students process water samples from homes in Flint.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/flintstudyupdates/photos/a.1018987271479001.1073741827.1012700432107685/1110136909030703/?type=3&theater">Flint Water Study/Facebook</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Our team of <a href="http://flintwaterstudy.org/about-page/about-us/">more than two dozen students and research scientists</a> at Virginia Tech has spent much of the past year analyzing and publicizing unsafe drinking water in Flint, Michigan.</p>
<p>Our “open science” research collaboration with Flint residents revealed high levels of lead, <em>Legionella</em> and damage to potable water infrastructure due to a failure to implement corrosion control treatment.</p>
<p>Despite Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) messages that the water was safe, we fought to educate residents about severe public health risks. That work led to a declaration of a public health emergency, first by the city of Flint and later by the state of Michigan and President Barack Obama; garnered hundreds of millions of dollars in relief for Flint residents; and informed a national debate on “safe” drinking water in America. </p>
<p>Our work, by any measure, succeeded. But at the same time, this experience has forced us to confront broader questions.</p>
<p>We have learned that as well-trained scientists and engineers, we can be agents for positive change. However, we have also learned that many obstacles make it hard to do good science – not only in crisis situations, but every day. </p>
<h2>Why we had to get involved</h2>
<p>By now the details of Flint’s water crisis are well-known. </p>
<p>In 2014, a state-appointed <a href="http://flintwaterstudy.org/2015/08/the-unintended-consequences-of-migrating-to-flint-river-water/">emergency manager</a> decided to stop buying treated Lake Huron water from the city of Detroit, and instead to treat and distribute Flint River water to city residents. </p>
<p>The MDEQ, which was responsible for ensuring that Flint’s water met federal standards, <a href="http://michiganradio.org/post/state-admits-flint-did-not-follow-federal-rules-designed-keep-lead-out-water#stream/0">violated federal regulation</a> when it did not require the city of Flint to properly treat the water – which we now know is <a href="http://flintwaterstudy.org/2015/09/test-update-flint-river-water-19x-more-corrosive-than-detroit-water-for-lead-solder-now-what/">highly corrosive</a> – to minimize leaching from lead pipes.</p>
<p>Citizens in Flint could smell, taste and see that their water was contaminated almost immediately following the switch. But when they tried to bring their concerns to public officials’ attention, they were <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/01/19/michigan-flint-water-contamination/78996052/">ignored</a>, dismissed and ridiculed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112604/original/image-20160223-16425-1k9gk70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112604/original/image-20160223-16425-1k9gk70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112604/original/image-20160223-16425-1k9gk70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112604/original/image-20160223-16425-1k9gk70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112604/original/image-20160223-16425-1k9gk70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112604/original/image-20160223-16425-1k9gk70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112604/original/image-20160223-16425-1k9gk70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students in the Flint Water Study pack water testing kits to send to Flint residents.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/flintstudyupdates/photos/a.1018987271479001.1073741827.1012700432107685/1110136225697438/?type=3&theater">Flint Water Study/Facebook</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We became involved in April 2015 when Lee Anne Walters, a Flint resident and mother of a lead-poisoned child, <a href="http://blogs.rollcall.com/218/flint-resident-ignored-months-now-hero-congressional-hearing-water-crisis/">contacted</a> <a href="http://www.cee.vt.edu/profile/?pid=edwards">Dr. Marc Edwards</a>, our research adviser at Virginia Tech. After the city detected elevated lead in the Walters family’s water, and she was refused help by MDEQ, Mrs. Walters took her case to EPA Region 5 employee Miguel Del Toral, who collaborated with our lab to sample her tap water. </p>
<p>Mrs. Walters sent us samples from her home, and we found lead levels that on average contained over 2,000 parts per billion (ppb) of lead – more than 130 times the EPA’s maximum allowable limit of 15 ppb.</p>
<p>Lead is a neurotoxin that is especially harmful to children’s developing brains and nervous systems. According to health experts, there is <a href="http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/lead/">no safe level</a> of lead exposure. </p>
<p>Based on his findings and the Walters’ lead data, Mr. Del Toral wrote an <a href="http://flintwaterstudy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Miguels-Memo.pdf">internal memo</a> to his colleagues at EPA and MDEQ in June 2015, which was ignored. When the memo was leaked to the press, MDEQ brushed off Del Toral’s and the public’s concerns with a statement that told everyone to <a href="http://michiganradio.org/post/leaked-internal-memo-shows-federal-regulator-s-concerns-about-lead-flint-s-water#stream/0">“relax.”</a></p>
<p>We saw city officials dismissing public concerns, knew that the city was not treating the river water to prevent corrosion and found high lead levels in samples from the Walters’ home. We believed there was an urgent threat to public health, and no one else seemed to be doing anything to help the citizens of Flint. </p>
<p>We set a plan in motion to help citizens in the best way we knew: with science.</p>
<p>As a first step, we mailed 300 sampling kits to citizen activists in Flint. Over just four weeks, Flint residents helped us gather and analyze 861 water samples – more than 12 times the number that city officials collected in six months. </p>
<p>Our results clearly showed a <a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/09/new_testing_shows_flint_water.html#incart_river">widespread lead-in-water problem</a>. MDEQ <a href="http://flintwaterstudy.org/2015/09/commentary-mdeq-mistakes-deception-flint-water-crisis/">questioned</a> whether our testing was reliable. In response, Flint citizens organizing the sampling developed quality control procedures, such as taping the kits closed once samples had been collected and signing their names across the tape, to make it clear that no samples had been tampered with.</p>
<p>We went to Flint several times to confirm and expand these findings by taking and analyzing more water samples. Again MDEQ tried to discredit our results, calling us lead “magicians” who could “<a href="http://flintwaterstudy.org/2015/09/commentary-mdeq-mistakes-deception-flint-water-crisis/">pull that rabbit out of that hat anywhere they go</a>.” </p>
<p>This struck a nerve. As scientists, we spend significant amounts of time making sure our results are accurate. In response to MDEQ’s claims, we became completely transparent about what we were doing and how we were sampling for lead. Because we took this approach, people in Flint trusted us.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112824/original/image-20160224-16425-1xb94cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112824/original/image-20160224-16425-1xb94cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112824/original/image-20160224-16425-1xb94cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112824/original/image-20160224-16425-1xb94cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112824/original/image-20160224-16425-1xb94cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112824/original/image-20160224-16425-1xb94cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112824/original/image-20160224-16425-1xb94cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Graffiti in Flint rejecting Professional Service Industries (PSI), a firm city officials proposed hiring in January to test residents’ tap water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">LeeAnne Walters/Flint Water Study</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile, both MDEQ and EPA were sluggish to respond to our questions and reluctant to share data with us. We filed several Freedom of Information Act requests (FOIAs) to gain access to agency records and were <a href="http://flintwaterstudy.org/2015/09/commentary-mdeq-mistakes-deception-flint-water-crisis/">alarmed</a> by what we found. </p>
<p>For instance, <a href="http://flintwaterstudy.org/2015/09/commentary-mdeq-mistakes-deception-flint-water-crisis/">MDEQ had misinformed EPA</a> about having corrosion control treatment in place. We also found that the state agency had <a href="http://michiganradio.org/post/expert-says-michigan-officials-changed-flint-lead-report-avoid-federal-action#stream/0">thrown out two critical water samples</a> – including one from the Walters home – so that Flint would meet the requirements of EPA’s <a href="http://www.epa.gov/dwreginfo/lead-and-copper-rule">Lead and Copper Rule</a>. The rule, enacted in 1994, requires cities to monitor drinking water at customer taps and take action to reduce corrosion if certain numbers of samples contain lead or copper above specific levels.</p>
<p>Our findings, combined with <a href="http://flintwaterstudy.org/2015/09/pediatric-lead-exposure-presentation-from-hurley-medical-center-doctors-concerning-flint-mi/">data on blood lead levels</a> in Flint children released by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha at Hurley Medical Center, finally prompted city, state and federal officials to declare emergencies in Flint and switch back to Detroit water. </p>
<h2>A culture of compliance</h2>
<p>One hard lesson we learned is that people in our field – environmental engineers and water managers – helped cause Flint’s crisis. </p>
<p>Somewhere along the line, in deciding what compounds to regulate and how to control them, the U.S. system for regulating drinking water has become extremely complex. There are now more than <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/">150,000 public water utilities</a> in the United States. Our National Primary Drinking Water Standards cover <a href="http://www.epa.gov/your-drinking-water/table-regulated-drinking-water-contaminants">more than 80 contaminants</a>, and EPA is reviewing <a href="http://www.epa.gov/ccl/chemical-contaminants-ccl-4">some 100 others</a> to determine whether they should also be regulated. </p>
<p>Individual utilities are responsible for monitoring and reporting to state agencies, which in turn report to EPA regional offices. With this segregated approach and so many things on their radars, a culture has developed that seems to be geared more toward meeting regulations and standards than toward protecting public health. This is especially true in programs like MDEQ’s that are <a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2016/02/17/issues-deq-cited-years-flint-crisis/80532786/">“understaffed, underfunded and [have personnel] lack[ing] knowledge and experience,”</a> in the words of <a href="http://flintwaterstudy.org/2015/10/podcast-lead-in-drinking-water-is-flint-a-washington-dc-2-0-and-other-tales-a-conversation-with-dr-yanna-lambrinidou/">Dr. Yanna Lambrinidou</a>, a medical ethnographer and adjunct assistant professor of science and technology studies at Virginia Tech. </p>
<p>As the U.S. Government Accountability Office has <a href="http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-06-148">reported</a>, EPA does not have enough power or resources to properly oversee sampling that cities carry out to show they are complying with the Lead and Copper Rule. Professors Edwards and Lambrinidou and others have documented that, as a result, agencies in charge of proving that regulations are met have developed techniques for <a href="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/michigan/files/201511/Gaming_the_LCR_WASA_2003-2009_Oct_2009.pdf">gaming the system</a> to avoid collecting water samples that contain enough lead or copper to trigger action. </p>
<p>Well-known techniques that took place in Flint include <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/27/michigan-water-testing-rules-pre-flushing-taps-flint-lead">preflushing</a> water from taps the night before sampling and using small-mouthed bottles, which artificially lowers lead concentrations in samples, as well as <a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/11/documents_show_city_filed_fals.html">failing to identify and test</a> homes known to have sources of lead in their plumbing from lead services lines or older brass components that contain significant amounts of lead.</p>
<p>At a recent national conference, one of our team members spoke with a utility manager about how his utility sampled for compliance with the Lead and Copper Rule. The manager was proud that his utility had never found a violation. But when our team member probed further, the manager acknowledged that a couple of homes in their distribution system had lead levels high enough to be of concern. However, he argued that the utility did not need to report these high levels:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Flint Water Study Team Member (FWS): So, do you inform the homeowners if the lead levels are high? </p>
<p>Utility Manager (UM): We don’t need to inform homeowners if the 90th percentile is below 15 ppb. [If fewer than 10 percent of homes produce lead readings above 15 ppb, the Lead and Copper Rule does not require the utility to take action.]</p>
<p>FWS: Yes, but, if you were a parent in a home which was tested over 15 pbb, wouldn’t you like to know?</p>
<p>UM: I understand what you are saying, but that is not how the rule works.</p>
<p>FWS: I know, but would you agree that it is a problem and that the rule should change? Isn’t it important to inform homeowners if they are over the action level?</p>
<p>UM: Yeah, but that is not up to me. Our job is to follow the rules and regulations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We are concerned by this attitude and believe we need to change it so that everyone involved is more focused on protecting public health than only complying with regulations.</p>
<h2>Conflicting incentives for scientists</h2>
<p>As budding academics, we are proud that our group went “all in” for Flint. We provided accurate technical information that was desperately needed, developed legitimate research questions and uncovered government wrongdoing. </p>
<p>We did not have a direct funding source when we got involved, and there was a real risk that we would not be able to raise money to support our work. But Dr. Edwards chose to move forward because the risk to Flint families and their children was much greater. He spent more than <a href="http://flintwaterstudy.org/2016/01/the-flintwaterstudy-research-support-fundraiser/">US$150,000 from his own discretionary research and personal funds to cover our costs</a>, and the National Science Foundation later backed us with <a href="http://flintwaterstudy.org/2015/09/our-virginia-tech-research-team-wins-a-50000-grant-from-the-national-science-foundation-to-study-flint-water/">a $50,000 RAPID Response grant</a>. </p>
<p>If Dr. Edwards had not been able and willing to do this, people in Flint might very well still be getting unsafe Flint River water from their taps.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112609/original/image-20160223-16459-1wn569g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112609/original/image-20160223-16459-1wn569g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112609/original/image-20160223-16459-1wn569g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112609/original/image-20160223-16459-1wn569g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112609/original/image-20160223-16459-1wn569g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112609/original/image-20160223-16459-1wn569g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112609/original/image-20160223-16459-1wn569g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Award presented to Marc Edwards and the Flint Water Study research group by the city of Flint.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/flintstudyupdates/photos/pb.1012700432107685.-2207520000.1456244450./1066427390068322/?type=3&theater">Flint Water Study/Facebook</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Academic researchers are supposed to contribute to the public good, and scholars are supposed to have academic freedom to explore important questions without undue interference. But at the same time, they are under tremendous pressures to meet metrics such as publishing papers and bringing in research dollars. This pressure can make researchers less independent and less willing to pursue roads less traveled.</p>
<p>We are worried that a reward structure has developed that supports mainly self-promotion and dissuades the altruistic motives to do science for the public good that attracted many of us to the profession in the first place.</p>
<p>Our experience in Flint has shown us some unpleasant costs of doing good science. It can mean burning bridges to potential funding, and damage to your name and professional reputation. There also are emotional costs associated with distinguishing right from wrong in moral and ethical gray areas, and personal costs when you begin to question yourself, your motives and your ability to make a difference. </p>
<h2>What scientists and engineers can do</h2>
<p>Things have started to change in Flint, but fixing its water system will take years, and its citizens will need continued support in many areas – including nutrition, health care and education – to manage the effects of lead poisoning over the coming decades. </p>
<p>From our perspective, it is hard not to feel that the regulatory system is broken, or at least critically flawed. Only an active and engaged public can drive reform forward, and make EPA and state agencies more responsive to fulfill their mission statement and truly protect the public.</p>
<p>As academic researchers, we do not always have an active role in fixing such regulatory shortcomings, but we can help influence change in unconventional ways. The Flint crisis showed that listening to the public is critical if we wish to do our jobs better as scientists and engineers and serve society. </p>
<p>Engineers don’t take oaths similar to medical doctors’ Hippocratic Oath, but maybe we should. As a start, we have all made personal and professional pledges that include the first Canon of Civil Engineering: to uphold the health and well-being of the public above all else. In doing so, we affirm Virginia Tech’s motto, “Ut prosim,” which means, “That I may serve.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54227/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebekah Martin receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Siddhartha Roy receives funding from the Water Research Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Rhoads does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Virginia Tech University engineering students blew the whistle on Flint, Michigan’s toxic drinking water. Hailed as heroes, they’ve also learned that it isn’t easy to do science for the public good.William Rhoads, Ph.D. Student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia TechRebekah Martin, Ph.D. Student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia TechSiddhartha Roy, Ph.D. Student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia TechLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/406432015-05-12T01:07:00Z2015-05-12T01:07:00ZExplainer: the greater good and why it matters more than ever<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80772/original/image-20150507-19454-15l8a4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'What's in it for me?' is a common question today, but not one that necessarily produces the best answers for collective wellbeing.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-83735947/stock-photo-pick-or-choose-me-is-the-hope-of-many-people-standing-together-in-the-hope-of-getting-your.html?src=csl_recent_image-2">Shutterstock/iQoncept</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Although the term <a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=civilization%2Ccivilisation&year_start=1800&year_end=2015&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ccivilization%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Ccivilisation%3B%2Cc0">civilisation</a> has less currency today than it once did, most of us see ourselves as living in a civilisation. And, as posited by <a href="http://www.johnralstonsaul.com">John Ralston Saul</a>, our understanding of civilisation tends to be centred on a sense of shared destiny; on shared interests, collective purpose and a common future.</p>
<p>Seemingly abstract, the idea of shared destiny is actually very familiar. Colloquially, we know this as the <em>greater good</em> or its synonyms: the <em>public good</em> or <em>common good</em>. </p>
<p>It is currently unfashionable to think about ourselves as having shared interests, collective purpose and a common future. A corollary of this is that it is unfashionable to think and talk seriously about the greater good.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/collective-cheers-as-age-of-entitlement-nears-end/story-e6frg9jx-1227113952538">Bernard Salt</a> recently noted, the power of the collective has subsided. Yet this has not always been the case and may not remain so for much longer. Indeed, it is important to remember, as the late <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/what-is-living-and-what-is-dead-in-social-democracy/3105140">Tony Judt</a> reminded us, that our current condition is an acquired, not a natural, one. </p>
<p>Given this, it is salutary to reflect on the meaning of the greater good. After all, fortune favours the prepared mind.</p>
<h2><strong>An idea with a long pedigree</strong></h2>
<p>The idea of the greater good has a long yet punctuated history, replete with diverging meanings. </p>
<p>To illustrate, Plato imagined an ideal state in which private goods and nuclear families would be relinquished for the sake of the greater good of a harmonious society. Aristotle defined it in terms of a communally shared happiness, whose key constituents were wisdom, virtue and pleasure.</p>
<p>More sustained engagement with the concept occurred in the 17th century with the rise of <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/soc-cont/">social contract theory</a>. This was a school of thought that we ought to forfeit our absolute freedom to live as we wish for the greater good of the security of shared life in a community. </p>
<p>Subsequently, 18th- and 19th-century thinkers such as John Stuart Mill argued that the right course of action is that which creates the greatest “utility” for society — with utility defined as experiencing pleasure and avoiding pain.</p>
<p>In the 20th century, the greater good received renewed impetus with the work of John Rawls. And in the 21st century, intellectuals such as <a href="http://www.chomsky.info/">Noam Chomsky</a> and <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/zizek/">Slavoj Žižek</a> are readdressing the concept in affirmative and critical ways, respectively.</p>
<h2><strong>An evolving concept</strong></h2>
<p>The most serious limitation of most historical ideas about the greater good is that they are silent on the greater good <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthropocene-raises-risks-of-earth-without-democracy-and-without-us-38911">as it relates to non-humans</a> and other natural systems. </p>
<p>At minimum, construing the natural systems in which we are nested as the <a href="http://www.iisd.org/pdf/s_ind_2.pdf">ultimate means</a> upon which all else depends admits the current and future state of the environmental “commons” into our understanding of the greater good.</p>
<p>Of course, the idea of the commons — <a href="http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/journals/pspi/public-goods.html">collective goods</a> to which all group members have free access — is an old one. Common goods (e.g. clean water, air) are clearly a vital, if no longer inevitable, part of the greater good. </p>
<p>Existing and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/public-private-and-good-for-everyone/5760126">emergent</a> public goods, which include tangible (e.g. roads) and intangible (e.g. democracy) goods, are another indispensable category of collective goods. They reflect our ideals of what a “good society” looks like. </p>
<h2><strong>A once and future idea</strong></h2>
<p>Australians are endowed with quantities of superb collective goods. By and large, we enjoy equitable access to these goods. However, with the possible exception of those who witnessed their introduction in the post-war years, most of us accept their existence and provision as an unanalysed fact of life. </p>
<p>Too few of us are alive to the meaning of the greater good, its vulnerability – despite its apparent solidity – and its reliance on our collective short-term sacrifice of time, money and effort to confer it equitably in the present and future.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, as <a href="http://www.swinburne.edu.au/leadership-institute/our-research/docs/Swinburne-leadership-survey.pdf">new research</a> indicates, we are deeply concerned about the state of the collective goods that our grandchildren will inherit. We are also alarmed by political leaders’ stewardship of these collective goods.</p>
<p>As we grapple with complex challenges, it is crucial that we understand how these challenges, and our responses to them, affect the greater good of the present and that which will be bequeathed to future generations.</p>
<p>Crucially, even if there was agreement about the meaning of the greater good in the groves of academe (there isn’t), we, as citizens, must possess a working understanding of the greater good that is peculiar to us and alive to our challenges. </p>
<p>A grasp of the meaning of the greater good – the idea that we possess, as we have always possessed, shared interests and a common future – is vital. This is because it improves the odds that we will <em>choose</em> what <a href="https://www.vu.edu.au/sites/default/files/wfg/pdfs/ross-garnaut-speech-and-slides2.pdf">Ross Garnaut</a> calls the “public interest” approach to our challenges rather than persevere with “politics as usual” and “business as usual”. </p>
<p>It is time to think seriously again about this once and future idea.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40643/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The concept of the greater good has made a comeback in Europe in an era of budget austerity, but in Australia too few of us are alive to its meaning – and to its vulnerability.Samuel Wilson, Research Fellow, Swinburne Leadership Institute, Swinburne University of TechnologyMark Manolopoulos, Research Fellow, Swinburne Leadership Institute, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/194032013-10-23T13:59:12Z2013-10-23T13:59:12ZDefining public interest – why Gloria De Piero’s privacy matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33485/original/7btbqtmf-1382455060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who's pulling the strings - the public or the media moguls?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Helen Allman</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A few days ago Paul McMullan, former deputy features editor on the News of the World, popped up on a Sunday morning debate programme with his oft-repeated lament that, in the wake of the “chilling effect” of Leveson and its aftermath, he was forced to sell his surveillance van. The clear implication was that trough-swilling politicians, corrupt businessmen and bent coppers would all be celebrating this curtailment of his courageous battle to expose their surreptitious evil.</p>
<p>I have to confess to a little punch of the air. Not because I want the mad, bad and corrupt to be left undisturbed – more of them later – but because I have little doubt that this much-mourned surveillance van had spent much of its working life parked outside the homes or hunting grounds of celebrity families, the bereaved, or those many other unfortunate and innocent victims of extraordinary events who find themselves at the centre of a media firestorm. </p>
<p>To be fair to McMullan, he has never concealed his own contempt for the principle enshrined in <a href="http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/human-rights/our-human-rights-work/human-rights-review/the-articles/article-8/">Article 8 of the Human Rights Act</a> that people have a right to their private lives. He famously told the Leveson Inquiry that “Privacy is the space bad people need to do bad things in,” and “<a href="http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2011/11/29/privacy-is-for-paedos-tabloid-ournalist-offers-jaw-dropping">Privacy is for paedos</a>”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3mfjwTRQBeM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Paul McMullan: ‘privacy is for paedos’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This philosophy came to mind again over the weekend when it emerged that shadow equalities minister, <a href="http://www.gloria-de-piero.co.uk/">Gloria De Piero</a>, had asked the press to “call off the hunt” for topless pictures of her aged 15. Having <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article3897078.ece">told The Times</a> in an interview last week that she had posed for them to earn some money when she was a skint teenager, she learned that a news agency - apparently acting on behalf of a national newspaper – had offered thousands of pounds to acquire them. </p>
<p>Let’s put aside questions about whether publication would break the law or the <a href="http://www.pcc.org.uk/cop/practice.html">Code of Conduct</a> devised by the now-discredited Press Complaints Commission. How on earth could any newspaper justify such a gross intrusion into someone’s earlier life?</p>
<h2>What is the public interest?</h2>
<p>This is the heart of debates around Leveson and subsequent efforts to find some kind of regulatory framework which safeguards press freedom while also protecting people from abuse of basic journalistic standards. How do you define the public interest? </p>
<p>At one end of the scale is the public interest philosophy <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=afVpjod73tQC&pg=PA54&dq=mark+fowler+the+public%E2%80%99s+interest+defines+the+public+interest&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1INmUs3jJa6W0QX-voHgBA&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=mark%20fowler%20the%20public%E2%80%99s%20interest%20defines%20the%20public%20interest&f=false">originally advanced in the United States by Mark Fowler</a>, appointed by President Reagan in 1981 as chairman of the very powerful Federal Communications Commissions: “the public’s interest defines the public interest”. While he might be horrified to find his philosophy applied to publication of a 15-year-old girl’s naked breasts, that is the only conceivable rationale for the news agency’s picture hunt. The market dictates what intrusions are permissible.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33486/original/tjqsbwtq-1382455118.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33486/original/tjqsbwtq-1382455118.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33486/original/tjqsbwtq-1382455118.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33486/original/tjqsbwtq-1382455118.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33486/original/tjqsbwtq-1382455118.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33486/original/tjqsbwtq-1382455118.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33486/original/tjqsbwtq-1382455118.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33486/original/tjqsbwtq-1382455118.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Rising star: Gloria de Piero.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Stilwell/PA Wire</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the other end of the scale is what much of our national press would have us believe is the inevitable end result of current (modest) proposals for independent self-regulation: a world in which watchdog journalism is neutered and the rich and powerful can sleep easy in their beds. This <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2456926/Vengeful-MPs-Monty-Python-press-charter--lethal-threat-free-speech.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">frankly absurd caricature</a> is being offered as a serious critique of a framework which is actually designed to promote genuinely public interest journalism while preventing victimisation or harassment.</p>
<p>So how to define “public interest journalism”? In fact, there is a pretty well established set of industry rules, which can be found not just in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-privacy-introduction/#the-public-interest">BBC</a> and <a href="http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/bsc/pdfs/research/pidoc.pdf">Ofcom</a> editorial codes but even in the PCC’s. Exposure of wrongdoing, injustice or incompetence among private or public officials in positions of responsibility; protecting the public from potential danger; preventing the public from being misled by public figures attempting to create a false image of themselves; and revealing information with a clear democratic purpose. All of these appear in various guises under the “public interest” umbrella.</p>
<h2>Is the public interested?</h2>
<p>This coincides neatly with the public’s view, which is rather more sophisticated (and rather less prurient) than the McMullans of this world would have us believe. Opinion research which I carried out last year for the British Journalism Review tested public attitudes to the publication of stories involving different types of “revelation” from food contamination in a supermarket to a pop star’s cosmetic surgery. The research posed eight possible story lines, asking in each case whether or not newspapers should publish the story. Results showed that the British public have little appetite for the publication of stories which they see as belonging to the private realm.</p>
<p>A full report can be found in the original BJR <a href="http://www.bjr.org.uk/data/2012/no2_barnett">article</a>, but perhaps the most remarkable finding was a story involving “a well-known England footballer, who is married with young children … having an affair”. Nearly six in ten thought this story should not be published, compared to just over a third who thought the story was not in the public interest “but nevertheless should be published”; and just 6% who said it was “definitely in the public interest” to publish.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33487/original/p64jypmc-1382455272.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33487/original/p64jypmc-1382455272.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33487/original/p64jypmc-1382455272.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33487/original/p64jypmc-1382455272.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33487/original/p64jypmc-1382455272.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33487/original/p64jypmc-1382455272.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33487/original/p64jypmc-1382455272.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33487/original/p64jypmc-1382455272.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">British Journalism Review</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Of course, there is something of a gap between professed attitudes in a survey and the newspaper reading public – but not as much as the privacy-busters would have us believe. Tabloid newspaper circulation is in decline and, according to <a href="http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/tv-research/news/News_Report_2013.pdf">data just published</a> by Ofcom, fewer that one in five adults read the redtops “for news” nowadays. Much as tabloid editors would love to justify the kinds of excesses which were revealed years ago by the Information Commissioner – who <a href="http://skynews.skypressoffice.co.uk/newstranscripts/dermot-murnaghan-talks-christopher-graham-information-commissioner-hacking-blagging-">detailed the “industrial scale”</a> of unlawful acquisition of confidential data by private investigators on behalf of journalists – most British voters simply do not buy that argument to justify prurient invasions of people’s private lives.</p>
<p>So when De Piero says “no one should have to worry that something they did when they were young might prevent them from serving their community or getting involved in politics”, the vast majority would agree with her. Those who are trying to boost circulations on the back of other people’s misery or humiliation – as some of our newspapers have done for years – will find little solace in their “public interest” arguments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19403/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Barnett has received funding from the Arts & Humanities Research Council for his work on media plurality. He is a board member of Hacked Off.</span></em></p>A few days ago Paul McMullan, former deputy features editor on the News of the World, popped up on a Sunday morning debate programme with his oft-repeated lament that, in the wake of the “chilling effect…Steven Barnett, Professor of Communications, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.