時差N小時:舉報人保護法 Whistleblower Protection Laws

It's not hard to think of moments when history waschanged by someone who blew the whistle ongovernment missteps. Daniel Ellsburg, for instance,leaked the Pentagon's secret history of itsinvolvement in Vietnam to the New York Times andhastened public disillusion with that war.

很難想起因有人揭發(fā)政府的失誤而改變歷史軌跡的事件。例如，Daniel Ellsburg 向紐約時報泄露了五角大樓在越戰(zhàn)時期的秘密歷史，加速毀滅了公眾對戰(zhàn)爭的幻想。

FBI official Mark Felt, known to the world as DeepThroat, helped bring down the Nixon administration after the Watergate scandal. Most“whistleblowers,” though, never get much fame or public notice. As a result, they're vulnerableto being fired or silenced.

以“深喉”聞名于世的聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局的官員 Mark Felt 在水門事件后，幫助扳倒了尼克松政府。然而大多數(shù)的“弊端揭發(fā)人”卻從未得到應(yīng)有的名聲或引起公眾的注意。因而，他們很容易遭到解雇或被迫保持沉默。

As far back as 1912, Congress recognized that in our democracy, public knowledge ofgovernment wrongdoing—or waste—is vital to society's welfare. Its broadest protection forwhistleblowers came in the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 and the 1989 WhistleblowerProtection Act, which guard most federal employees who step forward from retaliation for theiractions. These laws aren't perfect, but they've helped ordinary Americans serve their fellowcitizens.

早在1912年國會就意識到，在民主社會公眾應(yīng)該對政府的不當(dāng)行為或者鋪張浪費有所了解，這是非常重要的社會福利。1978年的《文官改革法》以及1989年的《舉報人保護法》保護大多數(shù)的聯(lián)邦雇員不因他們的行為受到報復(fù)，這是對告密者最廣泛的保護。這些法律并不堪稱完美，但它們幫助美國普通老百姓為自己的同胞服務(wù)。

Whistleblowers have disclosed a cover-up of airplane near-misses at Dallas-Fort Worth airport,revealed toxic emissions by Federal Prison Industries, and laid bare repeated violations ofnuclear safety laws at a plant in Ohio—misdeeds we might never have known about, were it notfor the protection Congress gave them.

告密者揭發(fā)了達(dá)拉斯-沃斯堡大型機場試圖掩蓋飛機劫持未遂事件;揭露了聯(lián)邦監(jiān)獄工業(yè)公司釋放有毒氣體這一事實;將俄亥俄州一家核電站屢次違反核安全法公布于世——如果不是國會提供保護，我們永遠(yuǎn)不會知道這些罪行。