Winners Announced for the seventh Blueprint for Free Speech Whistleblowing Prizes
Today, the winners of the 2024 Blueprint for Free Speech Whistleblowing Prizes are announced. An online awards ceremony hosted by Byline TV will be available to view from 6pm GMT. The awards honour the bravery of whistleblowers who come forward in the public interest.
This year’s winners include multiple Boeing whistleblowers who exposed the complete collapse of quality control in production of the company’s aircraft. They also include the quick-thinking actions of a Nigerian paediatric doctor and her head of department at a training hospital in The Gambia whose actions averted a deadly global crisis putting children’s lives at risk with toxic cough syrup.
As in previous years, the predominance of winners from Africa is indicative of the particularly harsh penalties whistleblowers face on the continent.
The awards are judged by Lord Hollick, Australian barrister James D Catlin and academic Dr Suelette Dreyfus.
The 2024 Whistleblower Prize winners, who share the £21,000 prize money and each receive a receive a specially designed trophy, are:
Blueprint 2024 North America Whistleblowing Prize
Boeing whistleblowers John Barnett, Sam Salehpour, Roy Irvin, Joshua Dean, Sam Mohawk, Cynthia Kitchens and Santiago Paredes (US)
Multiple whistleblowers revealed critical safety problems at Boeing, with implications for everyone who travels by air.
Blueprint 2024 Europe Whistleblowing Prize
Robert Herold (Germany)
Pharmacist Robert Herold exposed corruption and endemic overpricing in Germany’s chemotherapy provision
Blueprint 2024 Africa Whistleblowing Prize
Sarah Kityo (Uganda)
Elite athlete Sarah Kityo was jailed after exposing corruption in the Uganda Netball Federation
Egbuna Obidike and Vivian Muoneke (Nigeria)
Doctors Obidike and Muoneke averted the deaths of thousands of children worldwide by spotting that young patients in The Gambia were dying of kidney failure caused by toxic cough syrups
Ravo Ramasomanana (Madagascar)
Public health official Ravo Ramasomanana blew the whistle on corruption in the Malagasy health service
Sarika Lakraj-Naidoo (South Africa)
Finance director Sarika Lakraj-Naidoo was fired after exposing municipal corruption in Johannesburg
Mbuso Ngcobo (South Africa)
Chief whistleblower on corruption at the eThekwini metropolitan municipality
Dorothy Mmushi (South Africa)
Whistleblower who found herself embroiled in a huge corruption story at Eskom, South Africa’s national energy supplier
Blueprint 2024 Impact Award for Positive Social Change
Scott Smith (US)
Scott Smith is awarded a special prize for his role in bringing accountability to those responsible for major chemical contamination in East Palestine, Ohio