International Whistleblower News (November 23, 2009)

Posted on November 23, 2009 by Yongjin Chang

[Canada] MacCharles, Tonda, Richard Colvin: Portrait of a whistleblower, theStar.com, November 21, 2009.

Talk to people who know Richard Colvin and a few key traits emerge. Driven, committed to Canada's mission in Afghanistan. Knows his stuff. Takes copious notes. Sociable, yet discreet. Above all, discreet. Click here to read more. 

[Vietnam] Huy, Dam, “Company chief arrested for having whistleblower killed, Thanhnien News.com, November 21, 2009.

Ngo Quang Truong, director of real estate investor Hoang Hai Ltd. in Hoc Mon District, was detained after the police caught four men involved in the murder: Bui Quoc Huy, Tran Van Khoa from the northern Vinh Phuc Province, Vu Van Luan from the northern Hai Phong City and Ngo Chi Huan from the Mekong Delta’s Hau Giang Province. Click here to read more.   

[Australia] McCarthy, Joanne, “No help for Orkopoulos whistleblower Gillian Sneddon,” theherald.com.au., November 21, 2009.

GILLIAN Sneddon has officially fallen through the cracks in the system. She helped police put her former boss, Swansea MP Milton Orkopoulos, in jail for child sex offences, but NSW Deputy Ombudsman Chris Wheeler has confirmed what Ms Sneddon already knew there is nowhere she can turn for help about her treatment as a whistleblower. Click here to read more.

[Malta] Vella, Francesca, “Whistleblower Act expected shortly,” The Malta Independent, November 20, 2009.

Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said yesterday that the Whistleblower Act is expected to be introduced shortly, possibly towards the end of the year or the beginning of next year. Click here to read more.

[Iran] McGough, Steve, “Whistleblower Iranian physician dead,” Radio Vice Online, November 18, 2009.

Well isn’t this just grand. Twenty-six year old Iranian prison doctor Ramin Pourandarjani who went public with reports of torture and murder after the recently-squashed Iranian revolution is dead after a car accident. Or is it a heart attack. Or maybe suicide. Or maybe he was poisoned. Click here to read more.

You can download the PDF files of the news in each country’s page: Australia, Canada, Iran, Malta, and Vietnam. 

 
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International Whistleblower News (November 9, 2009)

Posted on November 9, 2009 by Yongjin Chang

[Russia] Humphries, Conor, “Russia fires police YouTube whistleblower,” Reuters, November 8, 2009.

A junior Russian policeman was fired on Sunday after making a YouTube appeal to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accusing senior officers of corruption, a claim dismissed by authorities as false, news agencies reported. The policeman from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk last week posted a seven-minute clip that accused senior officers of forcing him to work weekends and solve imaginary crimes, as well as blocking him from claiming compensation for an injury. Click here to read more.

[Iran] Arrests of journalists since disputed June election now top 100, Without Borders for Press Freedom, November 5, 2009.

Reporters Without Borders welcomes the release of Agence France-Presse correspondent Farhad Pouladi, who was arrested on 4 November. The official news agency IRNA and AFP’s Tehran bureau confirm that he was freed from Evin prison yesterday afternoon. But Niels Krogsgaard, a Danish journalism student who was arrested the same day, is still being held, the Iranian authorities say. Click here to read more. 

[UK] Goodway, Nick, “Watchdog fines UBS £8m for banking fraud,” London Evening Standard, November 5, 2009.

It was also revealed that the bank has had to pay out a staggering $42 million (£29.5 million) in compensation to 39 wealthy overseas clients whose accounts had been fiddled by four corrupt bankers. The case was taken to the FSA by UBS when an internal whistleblower at the bank complained to its money-laundering officer. Click here to read more.

You can download PDF files of the news in each country’s page: Iran, Russia, and UK. 

 
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Translator can sue under Bivens for retaliatory termination

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Richard Renner

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Even federal agencies use independent contractors and skirt the protections provided to "employees." This month, a federal judge in Washington, DC, held that a former translator can sue the Voice of America officials who terminated her contract after she made an anti-war music video. Using the authority of Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle has ordered that Melodi Navab-Safavi can proceed with her lawsuit against the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and its officials.  Judge Huvelle noted that Navab-Safavi made the video on her own time, without using any government resources.“[T]he law is settled that as a general matter the First Amendment prohibits government officials from subjecting an individual to retaliatory actions . . . for speaking out.”

Judge Huvelle adds, “public employees do not surrender all their First Amendment rights by reason of their employment.” She also held that music and internet postings have First Amendment protection, and that such protection applies to contractors as wells as employees.

Navab-Safavi worked for the Voice of America Persian Service as a translator. She worked with a pop band called Abjeez whose other members live in Sweden. Abjeez is banned in Iran. It makes songs and videos about women's rights and other social problems in Iran. As part of Abjeez, Navab-Safari made and appeared in a video called, "DemoKracy." It protests U.S. involvement in Iraq and portrays coffins of Iraqi civilians and Americans.  Navab-Safavi alleges that one of the defendants told her that her video had become, "a disproportionate problem" for her because she was "an Iranian." Judge Huvelle concluded this was sufficient evidence of an unlawful motive to retaliate.

To apply Bivens, Judge Huvelle had to find that no alternative legal means provided the plaintiff with relief.  Judge Huvelle held that Navab-Safavi could not obtain damages for the retaliation she suffered through the Contract Disputes Act (as her claim was not for breach of the contract, but rather for retaliatory termination) or the Administrative Procedures Act (no provision for damages).

Rick Salzman and Carolyn Lerner of Heller, Huron, Chertkof, Lerner, Simon & Salzman represent Melodi Navab-Safavi.  Congratulations to them all for this significant First Amendment victory.
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