BEHIND THE MASK presents acts of whistleblowing in times of coronavirus and exposes practices dangerous to public health during the pandemic. The programme focuses on the activity of whistleblowers, scientists, journalists, human right activists, artists and researchers denouncing abuses and wrongdoing in the course of the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.

In the context of the investigation on the relations between technology, politics, and society, Disruption Network Lab invite experts that have been speaking out to save other people’s lives, denouncing misconducts and corruption in healthcare systems. Alongside, the conference aims to focus on forms of retaliation suffered by whistleblowers during the pandemic, and on the stories of those forbidden from speaking out publicly about coronavirus. The conference and the programme around it present also new forms of collective care, social justice and resistance to foster accountability and literacy, and to defend human rights at a global scale.

Many whistleblowers around the world got silenced or suffered persecution during COVID-19. To name a few: Li Wenliang in Wuhan, China, who died infected by the coronavirus, was forced to sign a police statement that his warning about the coronavirus was illegal; Dr. Ai Fen from Wuhan Central Hospital, who was silenced by her supervisors raising concerns about the coronavirus and later disappeared; emergency room physician Ming Lin in Seattle, WA, fired because he gave an interview about inadequate protective equipment and testing; Christian Smalls, in Staten Island, New York, an Amazon warehouse worker, who was fired for saying that the company is not doing enough to protect them from exposure, and many others.

Following the streaming conversation in May, Whistleblowing During COVID-19 (Disruptive Friday #7 ), BEHIND THE MASK focuses on the role of courageous people to expose medical wrongdoing in private and public institutions, and working environments, to denounce abuses of personal privacy, both in the digital sphere and in everyday life.

The conference is curated by Tatiana Bazzichelli. In cooperation with Transparency International.

Photo Courtesy of the organisation