ONE of the elements in life that I find difficult to understand is the treatment our society delivers to whistleblowers.

Generally, whistleblowers are citizens who are so affronted by the corruption they have seen swept under the carpet by those in power that they are moved to expose the truth to all.

The name most synonymous with whistleblowing in our time must be Julian Assange.

Born in 1971 in Townsville under his mother’s surname of Hawkins, the computer programmer founded the online news sheet known as WikiLeaks in 2006 – a name now known the world over.

His issue started when WikiLeaks published a series of internal US Defence Force emails in relation to the ongoing war in the Middle East provided by US service person Chelsea Manning.

The information leaked related to airstrikes by the US Air Force in Baghdad, to the great embarrassment of US authorities.

As I understand it, and visual displays often show on our TV screens, US planes appeared to deliberately gun down personnel on the ground suspected of being terrorists, given permission to do so over radio by those in charge of the operation.

The leaks raised questions about who to trust in relation to the conduct of armed forces amid that difficult situation in the Middle East.

Information exposed by whistleblowers such as this, who are deeply troubled by what they see as being inhumane, irrational, dishonest and totally morally offensive, certainly raises a lot of questions.

So, how are whistleblowers treated by our society, our governments and private citizens?

Unfortunately, the weight of the official version is used to crush out the side of the argument that has been exposed by the whistleblower.

Often the truth is either forgotten, hushed up because it is seen to be politically unpalatable, or is ruled to be illegally obtained.

The system then turns on the whistleblower to assassinate his/her character, all in pursuit of hiding the truth – never let the truth get in the way of a good outcome.

There is recent whistleblower legislation out there, but I doubt if any of us know what it is or how it might operate.

The sad truth is that genuine, honest, reliable and highly morally sensitive individuals are being put to the sword in order to cover up the truths that the system doesn’t want us ordinary citizens to become aware of.

By John BLACKBOURN