AJ Brown, David Lewis, Richard Moberly and Wim Vandekerckhove, International Handbook on Whistleblowing Research (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014)

The whistleblower of popular culture is a lonely and often tragic figure. The
decision taken to reveal corporate, institutional or governmental wrongdoing
leaves the whistleblower cut off from family and friends, who often do not
understand the whistleblower’s radical and life-changing decision to place
themselves in danger, walk away from a well paid job, take personal risks and
incur whatever other costs inevitably follow.¹Recent events have proven that these
dramatised consequences are real. Two of the most well known whistleblowers
in recent years are Chelsea Manning, who has been sentenced to 35 years
imprisonment for leaking documents to WikiLeaks, and Edward Snowden, who
remains in exile in Russia.