When We Speak (2022) Movie Script
1
My fellow citizens.
At this hour,
American and coalition forces
are in the early stages
of military operations
to disarm Iraq,
to free its people,
and to defend the world
from grave danger.
On my orders,
coalition forces
have begun striking
selected targets
of military importance
to undermine Saddam Hussein's
ability to wage war.
These are opening stages
of what will be a broad
and concerted campaign.
[Bomb exploding,
pulsing percussive music]
Allegations of sexual assault
spanning more
than three decades.
I want to extend
to the people of Haiti
the unwavering support
of the American people.
The heroes without
a shadow of a doubt to me
are the whistleblowers.
He's accused of leaking
classified information
and faces felony charges
here in the United States.
Why did you become
a whistleblower?
There's a difference
between knowing something
and doing something about it.
We need transparency
into how Facebook operates.
I think a whistleblower
should be protected
if the whistleblower's
legitimate.
My house was bugged.
I knew I was being hacked.
I knew I was being surveilled.
It's like being hurt
by your own family.
- [Chatter]
- [Reporter] Whistleblowers
claims that vote leave
cheated the rules.
Out of a scheme
to affect the primaries
and ultimately the election.
It's not reality.
They're basically
lying to people.
[Reporter] Shouldn't
you be in gaza, Mr. Blair?
Shouldn't you be in gaza?
Suddenly you have to choose
where your loyalties lie.
[Whistle blowing]
[Crowd chanting]
Why won't you listen
to what I have to say?
When you open your papers,
behind every headline
of an enron, a theranos,
a scandal,
there is always a human being.
There's always a whistleblower
who brought
that information to light.
I think it's often
we take for granted
that this information
made its way to us.
But it only sees
the light of day
because some brave individual
decided to speak up
against powerful institutions
to bring
that information to light
so that we might all benefit.
We're in a moment now,
in a historical moment,
where there's
a very powerful idea
that feminism has done its job,
that we have equality,
um, and that women
have an equal public voice.
Um, and actually,
women are in some...
Many ways encouraged
to have a voice.
In many ways,
culture encourages us as women
to speak up and to speak out.
And yet, um,
when women do speak up
and do speak out,
and when they
actually challenge power
with their voices,
they are routinely punished,
um, for doing so.
[Keyboard clacking]
[Dramatic music]
[Suspenseful music]
[Katharine] Okay.
[Interviewer] It's just to
synchronize
- these two cameras.
- Right.
[Interviewer] I'll do that
every now and again.
[Claps]
[Mysterious electronic music]
[Keyboard clacking]
Well, gchq stands for government
communications headquarters.
Uh, it's based in cheltenham,
uh, and it's,
uh, an organization
that basically
intercepts, uh, communications.
Um, whether that's phone,
fax, mobile, email,
uh, any sort of data
that's transmitted.
I would just, um,
listen to raw data,
raw intercepted, um,
communication,
and then produce a report
and submit it to, um, you know,
one of the UK ministries...
Um, the home office,
the foreign office
or other places like that.
But, you know, to be honest,
it was fairly mundane.
A very kind of normal,
sort of "normal," uh,
office environment,
um, gossip and, you know,
joshing with your colleagues
and that sort of thing.
When we started
at gchq on the first day,
they tell you
what your legal obligations are,
that you're bound
by the official secrets act.
I told my parents
that I was working at gchq.
I told my husband,
I told my friends,
but I said, "I can't
discuss my work with you.
Uses my language skills,
but that's all I can say."
And my husband was like, "oh,
she's got a good
civil service job," you know?
"Nice." [laughs]
And that's what I thought,
you know,
a... a job for life, basically.
[Dramatic music]
In September of 2002,
I was invited,
along with my line manager,
to go to the us
for a work conference.
And we went to San Diego
and while we were
at the work conference,
um, as part
of our sort of free day,
um, they said,
"would you like to go
on the naval base?"
And, you know, we can go...
And actually go on
board an aircraft carrier.
[Plane rumbling]
It was the first time
I'd been on
any kind of military hardware.
All these kids looked
like they were
18 or 17, you know?
They were
so fresh-faced and young.
And we asked
one of these young lads,
and we were like,
"what are you doing?"
'Cause they were busy.
And they said,
"oh, we're shipping off
to the Gulf in three days,"
you know?
And, uh, "we just hold this...
This ship out of retirement.
We've been painting it
gunmetal gray.
And we're... you know,
we're going to go off
to whoop some Iraqi ass."
And I was...
Me and my line manager
just kind of
looked at each other
and we were like, "what?
This is serious.
You know, they're not...
Just messing around here."
I suddenly thought,
"wait a minute,
what has Iraq
got to do with 9/11?"
I was convinced, you know,
that the... the Iraq invasion
would be ill... illegal,
that there was
no real justification for it.
On the 31st of January,
I went into work as usual.
It was a Friday,
I sat down at my desk,
and, uh, I was looking
at the various emails
that had come in,
and there was one from the us.
It was from, uh,
the national security agency.
[Electronic beeping music]
It was basically an email
that, um, asked UK, or gchq,
to assist the us
in collecting the communications
of, um, the six swing nations
that were sitting
on the UN security council,
uh, at that time.
So, that was, uh, countries
like Angola, Bulgaria,
Chile, Cameroon,
Guinea and Pakistan.
So, those six nations.
And the memo was written
in... in such a way
that it was kind of very...
It was sort of, you know,
"look, guys,
this is what we're doing."
You know, "help us out here."
And we need, quote,
"the whole gamut of information
that would give us policymakers
an edge in obtaining results
favorable to us goals."
[Dramatic music]
And that one sentence
justjumped out and hit me.
And I thought, "they want war
and they want to get it
by any means necessary,
including sub...
Subverting the diplomats
at the UN security council.
Blackmailing them, bribing them,
whatever it took...
To persuade them
to vote for this UN resolution
that would authorize
an invasion of Iraq.
And it was just like this
"oh, my god" moment.
I was shocked,
I was angry and I was appalled.
Because I thought
we're basically...
Colluding...
For the purpose
of launching an illegal war.
Tony Blair at the time
desperately wanted
UN authorization for legitimacy,
basically to cover
his own kind of, uh, reputation.
It would be
devastating for, uh, people
who had already
basically suffered 20 years
of, um, war
and sanctions already.
You know, there were
generations of young Iraqis
who have grown up
knowing nothing
but this
sort of chaos and horror.
[Wailing and shouting]
It was like
I was blinkered, basically.
I felt like I literally
could think of nothing else
except what was going to happen
to, um...
The nation of Iraq
a... and to some extent,
the British armed forces
who were going to be deployed.
National security, ibeheve,
should be in the interests
of the British public.
[Man] Anybody else [indistinct]
on the London bombing?
[Katharine] Those actions led
in the direct opposite direction
of British national security.
Launching an illegal war,
which mi5 themselves
argued in reports would lead
to increased risks
of terrorism and... terrorism
within the UK
and any British interests
around the globe.
And they were going to do that
through this subversive,
illegal, immoral way.
And I thought, you know,
"this isn't
what I signed up to do."
I'd kind of seen
behind the curtain
and the inner workings
of government
to an extent
that I hadn't seen before.
[Pensive music]
I went home that weekend,
I was completely obsessed
by what I had seen,
but I couldn't tell anybody.
I didn't tell my husband.
If you marry anybody
outside the agency,
you do not discuss
your work with them.
I just instantly knew
it was explosive material
and that it had the potential
to possibly derail the war,
that it literally
was exposing a corruption
of the UN diplomatic processes
for the purposes of a war.
We owe it to our children,
our children's children,
to free the world from,
uh, weapons of mass destruction
in the hands of those
who hate freedom.
This is a man who...
Has poisoned his own people.
It may well be
that under international law,
as presently constituted,
a regime can
systematically brutalize
and oppress its people.
And there's nothing
anyone can do
when dialogue, diplomacy,
even sanctions fail.
Unless it comes
within the definition
of a humanitarian catastrophe.
[Reporter] Downing street
insisted Mr. Blair
was just trying
to start a debate,
but to many, it sounded like
he was trying to enshrine
a new legal right
to launch preemptive attacks.
Suddenly, you have to choose
where your loyalties lie.
Do your loyalties lie
with your employer,
with the state,
or do they lie
at a sort of deeper level,
um, with humanity, with...
[Music fades out]
[Keyboard clacking]
We are just now
beginning to learn
the extent of the devastation.
But the reports
and images that we've seen
of collapsed hospitals,
crumbled homes
and men and women
carrying their injured neighbors
through the streets
are truly heart-wrenching.
The enriquillo-plantain
garden fault
runs right beneath the capital,
Port-au-Prince.
It's thought that
it hasn't slipped for centuries.
Last night it did,
releasing all that energy
as a devastating quake.
[Solemn music]
[Speaking in Haitian language]
[Man speaking
in Haitian language]
[Keyboard clacking]
[Fire crackling]
So many people
are in need of assistance.
The port continues to be closed
and the roads are damaged.
Food is scarce.
[Reporter] Waiting
outside the main hospital,
injured people
can only hope for treatment.
[Keyboard clacking]
[Music fades out]
- Mm.
- [Woman] Twelve.
[Claps]
[Helen] When I saw
the oxfam job,
you know, has such
an amazing reputation and...
And I just thought, you know,
"wow,
wouldn't that be incredible?"
And when I got invited
in front of you,
I was just so made up.
And I remember
walking through that door
thinking, "oh, my gosh,
this is oxfam."
And thinking, um, you know,
"it would be an absolute dream
to work for this organization."
And when they
offered me the job,
I was just,
you know, bowled over.
And my first few years
were just so inspiring.
I'd been working in hr,
um, basically
heading up the hr team
for the middle east
and former Soviet states,
and I was, uh, approached
to help with a problem in Haiti.
"Something's happened
in one of our programs,
and we need, um,
someone with hr experience
to go out there."
I knew very little about it.
Not really sure what to expect
and was really taken aback
by the, um... the allegations
that were being made.
[Airplane whooshing]
[Ominous music]
When I arrived in Haiti airport,
the first thing you met
was just a crush of people.
Um, you know, it wasn't
in the immediate months
after the earthquake,
it was sometime after.
But even then, there was
still so many aid workers
coming in and out
of Port-au-Prince.
And then you go out,
and just desolation everywhere.
There were still people
in tents everywhere,
on every single patch of land,
just tent after tent
after tent of people
still not in proper homes
or with proper running water.
And I was really shocked
by how bad things were still.
When I went out there,
um, I wasn't directly involved
in the investigation,
but, um, I heard
a lot of what was going on
and it was shocking.
You have people in
an exceptional position of power
working with people
who are incredibly vulnerable
and incredibly dependent,
particularly
after, um, you know,
a natural disaster or conflicts.
Port-au-Prince had been
absolutely decimated.
These women had nothing
and these aid workers
were there to help them.
Yet they were
exploiting them for sex
and taking advantage of the fact
that they were desperate
for... for money.
What are your choices?
Who do you go to?
Things have collapsed.
There's no
police officer to go to
because all the systems
you normally expect
aren't there in place.
You may be... have
no family or friends left
who've survived the disaster.
You could be on your own.
Some individuals
even now will say,
"oh, for example, in Haiti,
they... they were sex workers,
they were prostitutes."
And it just makes me mad
when I hear that
because they were
earthquake survivors
who had no choice.
You know, some of the women,
you... had babies, children,
and they had to make
the most awful of decisions
to prioritize the basic
needs of their children
by having sex with these men
in order to get the money
that they... they needed.
You know,
really vulnerable position
that these people were in
and the aid workers
who were there to help didn't.
The person who come
to help became a predator
and the person
that is already a victim
of a natural disaster
become actually a prey.
You know, I... I think,
like many people at the time,
I thought, "this is absolutely,
you know, appalling."
But you think
maybe it's a one-off.
[Suspenseful music]
I came back
and I became oxfam's
global head of safeguarding
in 2012.
And then I traveled
to more countries,
and it became evident,
sadly, quite quickly
that this wasn't...
This wasn't one country.
This was happening across many,
many of our country programs.
And it was the same story.
It was... very commonly,
I was hearing
principally women, um, in
the most vulnerable positions.
So, women who were divorced,
lost their partners,
who were
in low-paid work, cleaners,
um, people looking to get jobs.
They were the ones
being targeted.
And the people who were abusing
were, um, men
in positions of power.
Managers who were
abusing that position
to coerce people into sex.
But not just coercion, not...
There was, you know,
what I was hearing as well...
People were being raped.
There were
so many allegations coming in
within the actual offices.
And this is happening to them.
What is happening
to those people
out in... out
in the refugee camps,
um, in some
of the most vulnerable positions
that they can possibly be
in some of the countries
oxfam works in?
Um, to be raped
can be a criminal offense.
You know, if you're married,
you've effectively
had sex out of marriage,
um, and you could be
putting your life at risk
by disclosing
that that's happened.
The shame
it could bring on a woman
could mean that she has
to leave her village.
I mean, people are trusting you
quite literally with their lives
when they tell you these things.
And... and that doesn't
happen straight away.
It takes months
to build those relationships.
But built
those relationships, we did.
And... and more
and more allegations
were... were coming in.
What we're talking here about
is systemic sexual
exploitation and abuse.
And by that, I mean rape
and, um, sexual abuse
in all its form
of both adults and children.
That... that's
what I was hearing.
The... the aid sector, you're
meant to be there to help.
The fundamental principle of
the aid sector is, "do no harm."
And that wasn't the case.
[Mysterious music]
And I wasn't thinking about
consequences to myself at all.
It was just, "how do I
get this information out
in... in a way
that will best protect me
from being discovered?"
The only person I could contact
was somebody who I knew,
who I never named.
I knew
they had met Yvonne Ridley,
who was a journalist
who had her own, uh,
extraordinary story
of being captured
by the Taliban in Afghanistan
and then subsequently
converting to islam.
I... I phoned my contact
and I said,
"look, I've seen something
at work which is explosive.
I... I really think
it's imp... important information
that should come out.
The public should be
aware of this."
And they said, "send it to me."
[Dramatic pulsing music]
So, on Monday,
I went back into work.
I was not at my usual work desk.
And I thought
that was a ideal moment
to do something that I knew
I wasn't supposed to be doing.
I printed off the memo
and I folded it up
and put it in my handbag.
I felt like
I had a big sign on my head
that was alerting everybody
to my, um... you know,
my "criminal activity."
And I felt like everybody
could see it on my face.
It was just so,
um, nerve-racking.
And when I got out of work,
I posted the, urn, email
to this contact,
and then we decided
not to have
any contact between us.
It was like, "okay, this is it.
We're not going
to contact each other.
We're not going
to discuss this."
So, I had no idea
what was going to happen
to that email.
It was completely
and utterly out of the blue
when I went to buy
a newspaper, the observer,
which was what I usually
got on a Sunday morning.
And there was the email
right on the front pages
of the newspaper.
[Suspenseful music]
Utterly, utterly
terrified at that moment.
Threw the newspaper
down on the bed...
My husband
was still half asleep...
And... and said, "read it.
He'd never seen me
in such a state.
I was running to the toilet,
heaving my guts out.
Basically, I was
in a state of panic.
I didn't really know what to do.
I was just utterly
unable to function normally.
And I thought,
"how can I carry on like this?
How can I even work there
when I've broken
their trust to that degree?"
So, I went to work.
I went into my office
and my manager was like,
"what are you doing here?
I thought you were sick?"
And I said,
"can I have a word with you?"
And we went into a side office
and I just told her
straight off,
"I did it."
And she was like,
"oh, Katharine!"
And she was stunned.
And she put her arm
around my shoulder
and she was like, "oh-ii
and I actually felt
relieved by this stage.
I'd unburdened myself
of this enormous, um, weight
of guilt and kind of...
Anxiety.
And I was hoping
that they would somehow go,
"yeah, you know what?
[You were right." Uaughs]
It's incredible to think this,
but, you know...
"You've really
justified your actions
a... and, you know, the war...
Uh, is wrong
and we shouldn't be going
to war and well done, you."
[Laughs]
After we had lunch
and went back
to the security offices,
and they said...
"Well, you have to stay here
because, um, special branch
are on their way
down from London."
At that point
I thought...
"Ho." [laughs]
"Okay.
I'm in deep, deep trouble."
[Tense music]
[Helen] As the scale of
the abuse became apparent to me,
um, I was going
to the organization repeatedly,
saying "we...
We need more resource
to tackle
the scale of this problem.
And very disappointingly, that
resource wasn't forthcoming.
Things really came to head...
I... I'll never forget,
you know, this for me
was the... the turning point.
Um, we'd gone out
and surveyed
four country programs,
over 120 people,
and the results came back.
And... and effectively
they were saying,
"one in ten of our workers
had witnessed or experienced,
um, sexual exploitation
or abuse."
And... and in one country,
it was 7% were saying
they'd witnessed or experienced
rape or attempted rape.
And I said, "you know,
this needs to be presented
to the chief executive,
to the leadership team."
Um, and they said,
"yeah, you've got your slots,"
I had all my reports ready.
And I was thinking,
"this is the moment,
this is the moment
where the organization
is gonna really see
what I'm saying
a... and take action."
[Dramatic music]
I'll never forget.
Uh, an hour before I was due to,
um, uh... to go on
and... and I got this call and...
And basically they're like,
"you're no longer
needed, Helen."
I was like, "what do you mean
I'm no longer needed?"
And they're like, "oh, um,
they... they don't want you
to go in and speak to them."
And I just was
absolutely incredulous.
And I... I remember coming up
to my managers,
like, "what's going on here?"
I wrote to the chief executive
and I was like,
"what are we about if this is
not our number one priority?"
And... and his response was...
Um, he said, "oh, Helen,
I... we felt your report
said everything
that needed to be said.
Um, and, you know, we trust
that you've got it in hand."
I was like,
"I have not got this in hand."
"Why... why won't you listen
to what I have to say?"
I was in post until 2015
and I was getting promises,
but I wasn't seeing
the change needed.
And very sadly,
I reached a point
where I just
couldn't continue anymore.
I need to leave,
and... and leave I did.
I then took it
to the charity commission.
I thought,
"the charity commission,
they're going to do
something about this."
And what do they do?
They didn't
invite me for interview.
They didn't ask me
any questions.
You know,
you start to doubt yourself.
You think, "is this me?
Am I somehow missing something?"
Um, and they just
stopped replying in the end.
I think they just put me down
as some sort of, like,
you know, batty employee.
I don't know what they thought.
You know, should I have
gone to the press then?
I just, you know, I thought,
"well, if I've gone
to all these other people
and they've not acted,
will it make a difference
going to the press?"
And also, I was worried
about what angle
might they take,
how that story would be told,
and would... could...
Could there be a risk
of doing more harm than good?
I don't know whether that
was the right decision, um,
not to, but I decided not to,
at that point.
I'd just become, honestly,
a bit... bit obsessed about it.
It was everything
I thought about
and... and with a young child
and... and my husband
had been incredibly supportive.
But, you know,
we were getting to that point
where, you know, he was
like, "you got to let it go.
You've got... you know,
it's... it's re... you know,
it's reach..."
And... and it wasn't him.
It was me.
I had to let it go.
It was consuming me.
[Solemn music]
I was done with oxfam.
Um, and it was
really, really hard.
[Sighs]
And I think the...
The really, really hard thing
was feeling
I'd failed those individuals.
And I've always been someone
who's been... you know,
I've always been someone
who can fix things.
I think just feeling so...
So utterly powerless...
[Suspenseful music]
Life was... you know,
was taken over.
And... and then I, um...
I got this text message
in February 2018, saying,
"Helen, there's going
to be something in the press.
Just want to warn you."
That story
by Sean O'Neill at the times
just absolutely
hit the headlines.
It wasn't me that went to Sean,
but when he did,
I started to get calls.
Um, you know...
It didn't take long
for people to work out
that I'd been
the head of safeguarding,
um, during this period of time.
And I was faced
with the biggest
decision of my life.
Do I talk publicly about this?
If you speak publicly,
you are going to be responsible
for people not giving
to the likes of oxfam.
And what harm
is that going to do?
Because if those donations
go down,
those people
who desperately need help
are not going to get help.
And... and also people
saying to me, you know,
"you're going
to pander to an agenda
to cut the aid budget.
You'll just be
lighting that fire."
I don't think
anyone can prepare you
for what it's actually
like to be a whistleblower.
[Bob] There is this kind of...
Deep psychological reaction
to whistleblowing,
that I think
we can all relate to,
where no one likes to be
pointed out as in the wrong.
And people's response to that
can very often, at least
in what... what I see, be anger,
those kind of primal responses.
And people are met
with retaliation
and hostile behavior,
that actually
for a lot of people,
they're... they're
not going into it necessarily
with their eyes open.
Everything points
to internal reporting
because it's, uh, perceived
as safer for the whistleblower
and it's safer
for the organization.
Organizations are desperate, uh,
that they hear about wrongdoing
so they can rectify it
before the public
knows about it.
Excellent reporting is very
much... is a... a fail-safe.
You go to the regulator,
the police, an mp,
the press as a last resort
because you... the...
The problem's not been
dealt with internally.
So, people who go outside,
I think by definition
are aware that they
are being in... in brackets,
they might think
they're being disloyal.
They're aware
that they need some courage
and they're aware
that they are more likely
to suffer retaliation.
So, we're talking
about people here
who are driven.
The wrongdoing
is more important, uh, to them
than perhaps to other people.
I think when it comes
to retaliation
and when it comes
to understanding
what the risks are
of speaking up,
it can be very different,
you know, for different...
Different people.
And I think one thing
that might be different
specifically if you're a woman,
is just the trigger
of... of... of personal safety.
You know,
I do something very simple,
like go to the supermarket,
and if it's nighttime,
you know,
I have to be more cautious
than I think men have to be.
And so, to be constantly
on edge about, you know,
"will I make it
safe out of this?"
That omnipresent threat
of, "am I physically
going to be safe?"
I think is something
that's very different for women.
When women speak in a way
that actually really
does challenge, um, power,
whether that's patriarchal
power, state power,
um, other forms
of institutional power,
it's at that moment
that that... that the sort
of machinery of patriarchy,
the machinery of the state
comes into play to silence them.
[Reporter]
Harvey weinstein denies
all non-consensual relations.
Over the last few days, though,
a-list stars have lined up
to condemn the man
who once had such power
over their careers.
[Keyboard clacking]
[Photographers
shouting instructions]
[Dramatic music]
Behind the scenes
of the new yorker
and New York times
exposs that came out,
I was being harassed
and bullied and terrorized
by Harvey weinstein.
I knew that people were
trying... like, bugging me.
I knew that my house was bugged.
I knew I was being hacked.
I knew I was being surveilled.
But in order to buy time
to get these articles written,
I wanted the articles
to come out before my book.
I just wanted
the articles to come...
I just wanted it to be done.
I wanted truth
to be out there and...
But at the same time,
I thought I had an nda.
I couldn't remember
if I had signed an nda or not
and I couldn't find
the document.
So, I was on the hunt
for this document
through... for 20 years.
You know,
it was like old law firms,
you know, all these
kind of legal maneuverings
and people that in the past,
when it happened to me,
were really playing his side.
As it turns out, I did not sign
a non-disclosure agreement
back in the day.
And at the 11th hour,
I found that document
to give to the New York times.
It was like the night
before the article came out,
I knew I was like...
It felt like
I had a rope in my hand
with a fireball
on the end of it.
And I was just going like this,
just like, "okay,
we're going in for a fight now."
This is going to be
the fight of your life."
And it was.
[Reporter] A contract
to keep it all private,
last night,
miss mcgowan went public.
[Reporter 2] Police are now
investigating allegations
of sexual assault
from nine different women
spanning more
than three decades.
It's just so rampant.
I think that's the thing
that takes your breath away.
It's shocking.
And the only way it stops
is with people coming forward.
And that's an incredibly
brave thing to do.
I was indeed warned before
I went into the hotel room
that Harvey was most likely
to be naked or semi-naked.
More than 30 women
have now come forward
and their allegations
reach back 30 years.
A terrible abuse of power
is what lies at the heart
of the weinstein story,
and the allegations against him
have shone a light onto
how power works in Hollywood.
The culture is so rooted in
and permeated in,
not necessarily every single
one being a sexual harasser,
but a sort of a boys' club.
[Reporter] Revelations of
abuse and assault
are peeling back
the facade of Hollywood,
shattering reputations of
the powerful and the political.
The couple days afterwards,
it felt like...
It... it... it was
like the world blew up,
kind of, you know,
and my phone couldn't contain
the amount of messages
I was getting. Um...
And it felt like...
You know, it was like...
Damn... trial by fire.
And it felt like
I was open season
and I was fair game.
And I was.
The, uh... the interviewers
focused a lot on, uh,
just really degrading questions,
but I just felt like,
"if I don't do this,
who can do this?"
[Male reporter]
But is there any part of you
that has some sympathy
for that behavior,
or do you... how do you see it?
Like, do you see him as a victim
because he paints
himself as one?
[Scoffs]
I think it's, um...
If you had a dog
out there in the world
with his mind inside of it,
you would shoot that dog.
It would not be a safe dog
to be in the world.
But you also took $100,000
of Harvey weinstein's money,
didn't you?
Well, that's
very shaming of you to say.
I didn't take it.
I requested it.
I was trying to buy a billboard
that said
Harvey weinstein is a rapist.
And I do feel
that whole, "you took money"
thing is a bit like...
Do you understand
what this person
did to our careers?
You know, it was impossible.
Like, it was just every day,
it was, like, a new assault.
And what people
didn't understand was that...
There's actual trauma.
A lot of people
come up and they're like,
"I know
that was so hard, thank you."
And that's amazing.
Um, but I think
there's a lot of people
that are like...
Even on the left,
you know, you would think
everybody on the left
would be like,
"oh, she's amazing."
It's not so, because anybody
who upsets the status quo
upsets, period.
There was someone in Germany
who was interviewing me
and he said, uh,
"you're the one
who lays on barbed wire
so others
can walk in your back."
And that's what it felt like.
It felt like I was laying on,
like, flaming barbed wire
with, like,
the weight of the world
walking across my back
towards a better place.
And I was like, "okay,
that's what I'm here to do."
[Dramatic music]
[Keyboard clacking]
[Katharine] I was immediately
taken to the police station.
Taken down
into the custody suite
where they,
you know, sign you in,
take all your belongings
and phone and whatnot.
And I was put
in this cell, and I sat there
and sat there and sat there.
And, you know,
just didn't know what...
What was going to happen.
Meanwhile, my husband was going
to the police station,
going,
"please, can I see my wife?
Please, can I see my wife?"
So, he kept coming
and they kept sending him away.
Finally, he came
and we...
We had to talk in this room
with a glass partition.
He was on the other side
and I was on the inside.
It's very ironic
because my husband
was an asylum seeker
and he was
a failed asylum seeker
at this point,
and he'd actually
already spent a night
in the same custo...
Custody suite.
You know, not that many months
before I was sitting
in the same place, looking in.
And he knew how it would feel
because he'd been there before.
You know, "I'll be all right.
I'll be all right,
they can only hold me
for under 24 hours,"
you know,
"I'll be out tomorrow."
While all this was going on,
they were raiding our house.
They didn't want to interview me
until they'd searched the house.
And then
the next morning, you know,
uh, the, urn,
special branch, uh, detective
came and...
And I basically tell the police
exact same thing
that I told gchq.
And they said,
"thank you very much."
By this time,
it was nearly midday
and they were just
within the 24-hour window,
they had to let me go.
So, I was arrested,
but not charged at this point.
I was arrested
and bailed, released on bail.
I went home.
I could tell
the house had been searched,
things had been moved around,
and within three months
I was, um, dismissed
for gross misconduct.
And that was it.
And so, I was just in limbo.
I felt isolated
and I didn't know
who to turn to,
who to trust.
Eventually, a John wadham,
who was the director of Liberty
at the time, contacted me.
He clearly knew the law.
He clearly knew my predicament,
could understand it
and knew how he could help me.
It was
an enormous sense of relief.
You know, I was arrested
days after
the email was in the newspaper.
And then, you know,
the invasion began.
I was at home, I was watching TV
and I just wept.
I mean,
it was just soul-destroying.
[Siren wailing]
[Reporter] The portent of war.
But if the siren
was meant to clear
the streets of Baghdad,
it wasn't needed.
That had happened hours before.
[Gunfire and bombs exploding]
Soon came the sound of thunder.
But of course, it wasn't.
For this was a man-made storm.
[Explosions rumbling]
Using an image intensifier
on one of oui' cameras,
we could pick out
exploding [indistinct] shells
in the pre-dawn sky.
In the city center,
the Iraqi gunners
were blazing away.
[Explosions and gunfire]
[Katharine] It was
just horrendous.
And I felt like a hu...
A huge failure,
you know, I just...
The whole thing
seemed utterly futile.
[Suspenseful music]
There was
massive amounts of press.
And it's
just enormously daunting,
you know, to be the only person
sitting there, uh,
facing the judge
and the legal counsel
and all the, urn, journalists.
Um, and they ask you
to state your name.
I stated my name, um...
And then the def...
The prosecution said...
Um, "your honor, we have...
Insufficient evidence
for a realistic
prospect of conviction."
And, you know,
I was just sitting there going,
"it's all legal language.
I don't understand
what they're saying."
And then my defense team
stood up and challenged it.
They said, "what are you saying?
She confessed."
And then he said it again.
And this...
There was this back and forth.
And the judge was like,
"it... what... you know, explain.
Are you dropping charges?"
And then, you know, they said...
"Yes, my lord."
And then that was it.
The case was over.
And I was just... I was like...
"What?
Is this really happening?"
And then
everybody's kind of cheering.
And I walk out, I'm trembling,
and I walk out,
and I was just, like,
utterly overwhelmed.
[Reporter] Her relief
was there for all to see.
For months, Katharine gun
lived with the threat
of a two-year prison sentence.
Today, after a court appearance
lasting just 30 minutes,
she walked free.
I'm not prone to leak secrets
um, left, right and center,
um, but I felt that this was
a really, um, essential
and important issue
that needed
to get out to the public.
I was just over the moon
that they dropped the charges.
But on the other hand,
we don't know
why they dropped
the case against me.
[Reporter]
One question unanswered.
I would like to know,
um, why they charged me
and then four months later
decided to drop it.
Yes, I would like to know.
It was this kind of anti-climax,
because I had geared myself up
for this trial.
I was determined to fight it.
And, you know,
we'd had all these
kind of high hopes
that we could use
the defense of necessity
to prove
that my actions were justified
and to argue
that the war in Iraq
had been illegal.
Ifeelhke
it was a missed opportunity,
really, to actually
expose so much at a time
when it really
would have made a difference.
And then I was
walking down the steps
and out... out of the building.
And then there was
this massive kind of wave
of journalists,
all their cameras
in front of my face,
and this young...
This woman brought me
a bunch of flowers.
And, you know,
it's just...
Everything's happening at once
and you don't know
where to look,
what to say, what to do.
[Laughs] It's funny.
Anyway, I... I went
and met my husband...
And I knew
there was
going to be this, um...
Massive rush of press
to try and get the human story.
And I was like,
"I... I don't want to face that."
So, we went down
to Brighton, to my great-aunt,
and we were like,
"can we spend
a few days with you
until the, you know,
circus has died down?"
And I just... I just wanted
to get back to normality.
What I find admi... admirable
is how they really see
the bigger picture,
which is to safeguard
the public interest
and also how selfless
they are as well.
Somebody is just trying
to solve a problem.
They're trying to go
about their normal lives.
They don't think of themselves
as a whistleblower.
Until the retaliation begins.
It's not for the faint-hearted,
for anyone who speaks out.
There's no guarantee
that you'll still be protected.
You make a lot of sacrifices.
Often, it could be end
of your job or your career.
It could have implications
around your family
and friends and connections,
or you've been
harassed or bullied.
And that has impacts
on your
mental health, wellbeing.
Where you work,
and especially depending
on the sort of work,
it forms a bit of your identity.
All these people that you love
and form a part of your networks
are suddenly against you,
and that has this
real kind of, um,
explosive effect internally
and... and can
really damage people.
This is a huge process of loss
that the individual
has to go through.
Um, and at the same time,
they're trying to process
that actually, what they did
was simply standing up
for something
that they believed was
the right thing to do.
And it can take, um, people
a long, long time to recover.
And I'm sure
that there's lots of people
who, unfortunately,
might not ever recover.
And... and that's
an awful price to pay.
People are experiencing,
as a result of doing this,
profound mental health effects.
And anecdotally, PTSD,
um, just seems quite a common...
Not common, but more
than you would imagine,
uh, result
of these sort of situations.
[Suspenseful music]
[Keyboard clacking]
As the story broke, I thought,
"I've got to speak out."
Um, I remember
calling Cathy Newman
and... and saying,
"you know, Cathy,
I'm not sure I can do this,"
and... and I'd... I'd gone to her
because I thought
she was a reporter
who would do the story justice
in the sense of keeping
survivors at the heart of that.
You know, I thought
really, really long and hard.
- [Phone ringing]
- Right up 'til half an hour
before I was going to get on
the train to give the interview,
and I had a call from a... a good
friend saying, "don't do this."
You know,
"just please, don't do this.
Just think of the impact
of what you're about to do."
[Dramatic music]
But then the flip side...
There was this sense
that this story's got to be told
becauseifs
in the public domain now.
And if I stay silent on this,
I'm as bad as others.
Just thinking, "those people
who told me their stories,
who... who were brave enough
to tell me
about the abuse they suffered,
you know, if they were
brave enough to tell me,
I've got to be brave enough
to tell their story."
Oh, I don't know.
What was it
that got me on that train?
I'm just not sure,
actually, being honest.
But I did. I got on the train.
[Suspenseful music]
[Train rumbling]
And I asked repeatedly,
"we need more resource,
we need more resource for this."
And it wasn't forthcoming.
And it was
just a continual fight
to try and get more resource.
And I just
found it so frustrating
because I felt that our failure
to adequately resource
was putting people at risk.
But it sounds
like they didn't take
those allegations seriously,
that women getting
harassed, assaulted, raped
didn't really sort of
register with the senior team?
I struggle to understand
why they didn't respond
immediately for that call
for additional resources.
I really struggle,
and I still struggle with that.
Every answer
was very considered.
She didn't drop the ball
at any point in the interview.
And that's quite unusual
for these kind of interviews.
Very often an interviewee
who's making allegations
of this sort is very nervous,
and they do worry
about the legal implications,
and they worry
about the personal repercussions
for them
in terms of career and future.
And so, sometimes,
there'll be lots of answers
that they want to redo.
But with Helen,
she was very smooth,
very calm, very professional.
Do you think
oxfam can survive this?
I do.
There are, behind oxfam,
thousands of committed,
dedicated, incredible staff.
Absolutely.
The things they do,
they put their lives
at risk every day.
They are amazing people.
In terms
of the senior leadership team,
I think there are
some people there
who need to think, look back,
what's happened
in the last few years,
and think, did they do
everything they needed to do
to keep the beneficiaries safe?
Uh, I rememberjust feeling
like I was physically shaking,
um, because it was so raw.
All I thought is,
"if people are
going to listen to you,
you've got to keep it together."
And I think also
for the first time,
feeling like
finally someone was...
Someone cared enough
and that finally, you know,
the... the world was waking up.
And I remember the next day,
um, I had, uh,
reporters at my door.
I... the phone
didn't stop ringing.
My social media
was just, like,
binging all the time.
The weeks and months afterwards
were just such a blur.
[Reporter 1] Oxfam's
deputy chief executive,
penny Lawrence,
has already resigned.
[Reporter 2]
Was there a cover-up?
Have you ruined
oxfam's reputation?
It's a culture of misogyny
against female employees,
female humanitarian workers
and the beneficiary population.
[Reporter 3] Complaints
of inappropriate behavior
were made by three women.
The hundreds
of thousands of people
who support oxfam every month
are compromised by this.
And to everybody,
I do apologize.
[Reporter 4]
Oxfam was told tonight
it can't bid
for any more government money
until the department
for international development
is satisfied
it's made the necessary changes.
I knew there would be,
um, some backlash.
And I think, you know,
I thought it through.
I thought,
"yeah, there are going to be
people that are angry with me."
Um, it's very different
to experience it.
Now, I was living in Oxford,
where oxfam's headquarters are.
I was seeing people
day to day in the streets
who were associated
with the organization,
and... and they were angry.
And I get
why people were angry then,
because they're thinking,
"well, why's she
speaking up about this?
You know, what...
What's her real motivation is?
Is... is she in it for herself?"
And I think they thought,
"this is being
somehow overblown.
This isn't, you know...
This all
can't possibly be true."
At that point in time,
people didn't know
the full facts of the case.
There was one
particular moment with my son
where someone came up to me
and... and said
how they felt quite forcefully.
And I remember
just holding my son's hand.
And afterwards
he turned to me and he said,
"mummy, why are people
being bullies to you?"
Really, life started
to get incredibly difficult
for Helen.
She got spat at in the street
when she was out with Sammy.
She got shouted at.
Um, you know, 'cause people felt
that this was going to
impact jobs at oxfam.
But that was nothing
to do with the charitable work.
It was all to do
with poor leadership
andlack of leadership grip.
Whenever
I left the door, I didn't know
who was going to come up to me
and what they were going to say.
Um, and this has
never happened to me in my life.
I started to get panic attacks
because it's that sense
of almost like, you know...
It's kind of
a really basic human response
that someone's approaching you
and you... is to think, like,
"are they going to be friendly
or are they gonna be angry?
They've caught my eye.
They're going to
want to talk to me.
And what are they going to say?"
And just
your heart starts racing.
And... and I started to find
that was happening, um,
more and more.
And, um, it reached a point,
talking it through
with my husband,
when I just... I just said,
"I can't do this anymore.
I feel...
I feel the need to move.
Um, I just can't live
in Oxford anymore."
And that was just, um...
You know, that was
the most awful decision.
I felt so guilty
that I'd put my family
in this position,
and to take my husband
and my son away from their home
and from the city
that they loved...
Um, and I felt I'd let them down
by not being
strong enough to stick it out.
And I think when you...
When you leave something,
you kind of think,
"that's it, it's dealt with."
Um, but it doesn't,
these things follow you.
And, you know, sadly,
me and my husband...
Um, separated.
And, you know,
it's been really tough.
But it was really hard
because there was nobody...
Telling me what to do
and nobody that I could explain
how I felt... to.
[Choking up]
So, yeah, it's...
I don't know
why I'm getting choked up
'cause I've
talked about this for,
like, 17 years already,
butlguess I've never talked
about the aftermath.
So, on the one hand, you feel
like you're
supposed to be overjoyed,
and obviously you are.
But as you say,
there's this baggage of trauma
that you haven't had...
You haven't processed,
and you need to process.
But you
don't know how to process.
[Breathes heavily]
So, I guess,
I haven't processed it.
[Laughs] But, um...
[Breathes heavily]
For the first
sort of two to five years...
Um, when I talked
about the actual episode itself,
uh, I got"
stressed,
uh, and raised tensions
and palpitations and so on.
But that stopped
after sort of five years.
But that was talking
about the episode.
It wasn't talking
about the aftermath.
And nobody talks
about the aftermath.
So, I think that's
the difference. [Laughs]
[Director and crew
speaking indistinctly]
So, yeah.
No. [Laughs]
You know, people...
There's so much stigma
about being a whistleblower.
But, you know, there's a reason
why people whistleblow,
because you have to, and...
And... and that's
the hardest thing, you know.
People don't
whistleblow through choice.
And I think
people have always seen me...
And even as a whistleblower,
I've endeavored
to be this sort of,
you know, confident person
that I've always been.
But I remember
when I left oxfam,
just that sense of,
you know,
having let people down.
[Dramatic music]
He's been helped down the line
and through it all
by, you know, horrible people.
I don't know what else they are.
I don't know
what else to call them.
Um, monsters.
You know, because he's got
something wrong in his head.
But what's wrong with them?
The complicity machine.
That's who I really went after.
That's who
I really wanted to target.
And that's why
the establishment
Rose up against me.
Because I was coming for them.
It's so massive
and prevalent, this problem.
And my goal was...
Was just to call a time-out.
I was like, "time-out,
I think we can be better."
No more.
[Crowd cheering and chanting]
[Rose] There was
this massive groundswell
of people coming for,
you know, evildoers.
It was... but the support
I've gotten from the public
is incredible.
You know, I walk down the street
every day and someone gives me
a fist up
or says thank you.
But it was also really hard
because I think,
you know, when it was going off
and it was
just like an onslaught
in the world media, it was like
I was being triggered,
just like so many other people
were being triggered.
There's no renumeration.
You know,
there's no financial reward.
Um, people are like,
"you're doing it to get famous."
I'm like, "I was famous."
Um, I would say
now I'm a notable public figure.
I think I'm a strange creature
in the firmament of the world.
You know, I don't think people,
because of what he's done to me,
um... even including my family.
A lot of my family
doesn't really speak to me.
Because I think they believed,
you know,
all the, uh, horrible things.
I decided then to give up work
and I was a full-time,
uh, stay-at-home mom,
and financially,
we started to really struggle
by this stage.
Um, we weren't living
extravagantly by any means,
but, um, I...
We were basically getting,
uh, further and further
into the red, financially.
And I just thought
it was untenable.
Uh, and I didn't
really see a way out.
We decided to, um...
Make a go of it in Turkey.
But that's how
things are at the moment.
People speaking out
like Rose
and Helen and Katharine
is in all of our interests.
It is about brave,
exceptional individuals,
but actually,
it's about the whole of society
creating those conditions
to make speaking out safer,
to make speaking out
something that doesn't entail,
like, extreme costs
that have to be burdened
by these individual people.
We're not a healthy society
if we're letting some people,
you know, fall on the scrapheap.
Unless we make sure
that almost all of them
don't suffer
from whistleblowing,
we will never build a culture
where people feel comfortable
to do what we all agree.
You know,
and we really do agree.
There's no party,
political lines on this.
Everyone's like, "whistle
blowing is a good thing,"
we all agree
it's the right thing.
Their sense of integrity
and justice has driven them
to stand out and speak out when
many wouldn't have done so.
And I think
a lot of whistleblowers
are very single-minded.
I mean, everybody's
different, of course.
But I think you can see
that there's some similarities
with people
who are so determined
to speak out about wrongdoing.
Um, so I think
that is a very special quality.
And it's
not a quality by any means,
if we're honest,
that all of us have.
[Dramatic music]
The film about my, um...
Whistleblowing experience
came out... in 2019.
It was called official secrets,
starring Keira knightley,
and as part
of the, urn, promotion
of the film,
I traveled
around very many places,
going to, um, film festivals
and various conferences.
And I was, you know,
in it with a lot of people
who were
talking about whistleblowing.
I think we need
to take a very long, hard look
about what we value,
what we, um, need
in order to thrive and...
How we should go
about making that possible.
I don't regret what I did, um...
In 2003, blowing the whistle
on the, uh, NSA email
to gchq, I don't regret that.
And when I think
about our legacy
for our children
and our grandchildren,
you know, I can't just stand by
and do nothing.
[Soft, ethereal music]
[Birds chirping]
[Helen] You know, it was
an incredibly
tough time in my life,
but I'm one of the lucky ones.
I was believed
and the charity commission
and mps
all reached the conclusions
that what I was saying was true.
Um, what I think is positive
is that the organization
I know has,
since this has come to light,
worked really hard
to make things better.
Where I am now, I love.
Um, I live in a gorgeous town,
but I am now
a... a single mum with...
With my son.
So privileged
now to be, um, running
an, uh... an autism charity.
When I was speaking, um,
out about what
had happened at oxfam,
my son was diagnosed,
um, with, uh, autism.
And so, I went through
the process
of getting a diagnosis
and was diagnosed quite...
Quite recently as well.
And, oh, gosh,
it's been such an eye-opener.
Being an autistic woman,
I think that meant
I said the things
that perhaps others
might not have done.
It gave me a lot of new insight
into probably why I became,
uh, a whistleblower.
You know, I was asked
at the time, you know,
"why did you do it?
And, you know, wasn't
that a brave thing to do?"
And... and something
I always felt was,
it wasn't brave,
I... I literally had no choice.
I would do it again.
And that's a really hard thing
to say because the...
The price
for my family and friends
was in... high.
And by saying that,
I feel like I'm saying
that the...
The needs of the people
I was speaking up
for were more important
than my family.
Life has changed forever
because of speaking out.
And sorry, it's... and I still...
Still a hard thing.
So, it's not
an easy one to answer.
Um, but I would.
I would do it again.
[Rose] So, for me,
moving to Mexico
has been really instrumental
in my attempt to heal.
I still have stress every day
related to that monster
and the monsters
he's surrounded himself with.
I still suffer.
I gave up everything.
I gave up a beautiful house.
Some guarantee of money,
some guarantee
of a career, uh...
To nothing.
Dear Harvey.
No matter what lies
you tell yourself,
you did this.
Today, lady justice
is staring down
a super predator:
You.
I think I was in shock
that he was sentenced,
because he pulled
every trick in the book.
[Reporters shouting
and cameras clicking]
His lawyer squeezed his shoulder
as he was found guilty,
but otherwise,
he showed no emotion.
This court process
has been testimony
to the courage
of the women who came forward
and to the tenacity
of the investigative reporters
who shattered
the code of silence
surrounding the Hollywood mogul.
[Tense music]
[Siren wailing]
[Rose] I feel very proud
of setting up the dominoes
and knocking them forward
to fall all around the world.
Because this is bigger
than Hollywood.
[Reporter]
This case became symbolic,
about far more
than just one man's
guilt or innocence.
The allegations
against the Hollywood producer
sparked the #metoo movement
against
sexual harassment and abuse.
I would do it
again in a heartbeat.
I would go through it all again.
I was made for this.
Not a lot of people are.
And the other women
profiled in this documentary,
I'm incredibly proud of.
I know what it takes.
I wish I had
a little more softness
in my heart
towards people that are scared.
Butlhave a great hatred of fear.
It is
the number one enemy of change.
So, I salute the other women.
And I salute anybody
who comes forward
and fights the good fight.
Because it's all
we're here to do.
We have concluded
that the UK chose to join
the invasion of Iraq
before the peaceful options
for disarmament
had been exhausted.
We have also concluded
that the judgments
about the severity of the threat
posed by Iraq's weapons
of mass destruction,
wmd, were presented
with a certainty
that was not justified.
Even though they all...
Have all experienced these
incredible difficulties, um,
and attempts to...
Attempts to undermine
what they've shown
and what they've said,
history has shown,
actually, that all of them
did the right thing.
Um, and for that reason alone,
I think, is a perfect example
of why whistleblowers
are essential for democracy
and for a healthy society.
We're better because of them.
Um, we owe them a debt.
Helen's decision to speak out
had far-reaching implications.
As a result,
hundreds, thousands of people
around the world
are better protected
than they were
before Helen spoke out.
[Reporter] Without doubt,
one of the largest gatherings,
let alone protest rallies,
in English history.
[David] What Katharine, uh, gun
did was extremely brave.
It was driven by her conscience
of a [indistinct] one.
And there were a lot of
protesters about the Iraq war.
You know,
she was one of millions.
And I think
that what Katharine did
was a forerunner for snowden.
We got... we didn't get
quite the same shock
that gchq, NSA,
"oh, well, then, all right,
you can trust them."
That snowden then demonstrated
exactly what
those organizations were up to.
[Mary] They are our heroes
and we need to find
a new way in our culture
to recognize and not take
that voice for granted.
[Nneka] Key movements,
such as #metoo,
black lives matter,
made people aware
that they don't need
to suffer in silence
for what they have experienced,
and that there's
really strength in numbers.
[Crowd chanting]
[Erika] It was
the courage of many women
sort of
coming forward and saying,
"hey, this is not okay.
This has been
going on for long enough.
It needs to stop."
That you actually
saw actionable change.
So, that's progress.
That's progress.
[Bob] If there's
one thing that's changed,
[laughing] People have had
enough of this shit, right?
They've had enough with...
They've had enough with people
telling them to be quiet
and... and not listening
and putting up
with systemic abuse
or systemic,
sort of, just bad treatment
from people.
It's people saying,
"it's enough,
I've just had enough."
And that, I think, um,
uprising in public consciousness
is... is probably
a bit of a change.
[Crowd chanting]
[Energetic music]
[Birds chirping]
[Helen] In life,
there is some tough stuff
that happens in the world
that we see on the news.
And when our hearts sink
and we just think, "oh, my god,
what sort of world I live in?"
Then you see
these people and you just think,
"hey, you give me hope.
[Uaughs]
You're one of the good ones."
And these women in this film,
you just think, "yeah,
that's why I get out of bed.
Because there are good people
fighting the good fight
who want to make a difference.
You know, something hopeful."
[Music ends]
My fellow citizens.
At this hour,
American and coalition forces
are in the early stages
of military operations
to disarm Iraq,
to free its people,
and to defend the world
from grave danger.
On my orders,
coalition forces
have begun striking
selected targets
of military importance
to undermine Saddam Hussein's
ability to wage war.
These are opening stages
of what will be a broad
and concerted campaign.
[Bomb exploding,
pulsing percussive music]
Allegations of sexual assault
spanning more
than three decades.
I want to extend
to the people of Haiti
the unwavering support
of the American people.
The heroes without
a shadow of a doubt to me
are the whistleblowers.
He's accused of leaking
classified information
and faces felony charges
here in the United States.
Why did you become
a whistleblower?
There's a difference
between knowing something
and doing something about it.
We need transparency
into how Facebook operates.
I think a whistleblower
should be protected
if the whistleblower's
legitimate.
My house was bugged.
I knew I was being hacked.
I knew I was being surveilled.
It's like being hurt
by your own family.
- [Chatter]
- [Reporter] Whistleblowers
claims that vote leave
cheated the rules.
Out of a scheme
to affect the primaries
and ultimately the election.
It's not reality.
They're basically
lying to people.
[Reporter] Shouldn't
you be in gaza, Mr. Blair?
Shouldn't you be in gaza?
Suddenly you have to choose
where your loyalties lie.
[Whistle blowing]
[Crowd chanting]
Why won't you listen
to what I have to say?
When you open your papers,
behind every headline
of an enron, a theranos,
a scandal,
there is always a human being.
There's always a whistleblower
who brought
that information to light.
I think it's often
we take for granted
that this information
made its way to us.
But it only sees
the light of day
because some brave individual
decided to speak up
against powerful institutions
to bring
that information to light
so that we might all benefit.
We're in a moment now,
in a historical moment,
where there's
a very powerful idea
that feminism has done its job,
that we have equality,
um, and that women
have an equal public voice.
Um, and actually,
women are in some...
Many ways encouraged
to have a voice.
In many ways,
culture encourages us as women
to speak up and to speak out.
And yet, um,
when women do speak up
and do speak out,
and when they
actually challenge power
with their voices,
they are routinely punished,
um, for doing so.
[Keyboard clacking]
[Dramatic music]
[Suspenseful music]
[Katharine] Okay.
[Interviewer] It's just to
synchronize
- these two cameras.
- Right.
[Interviewer] I'll do that
every now and again.
[Claps]
[Mysterious electronic music]
[Keyboard clacking]
Well, gchq stands for government
communications headquarters.
Uh, it's based in cheltenham,
uh, and it's,
uh, an organization
that basically
intercepts, uh, communications.
Um, whether that's phone,
fax, mobile, email,
uh, any sort of data
that's transmitted.
I would just, um,
listen to raw data,
raw intercepted, um,
communication,
and then produce a report
and submit it to, um, you know,
one of the UK ministries...
Um, the home office,
the foreign office
or other places like that.
But, you know, to be honest,
it was fairly mundane.
A very kind of normal,
sort of "normal," uh,
office environment,
um, gossip and, you know,
joshing with your colleagues
and that sort of thing.
When we started
at gchq on the first day,
they tell you
what your legal obligations are,
that you're bound
by the official secrets act.
I told my parents
that I was working at gchq.
I told my husband,
I told my friends,
but I said, "I can't
discuss my work with you.
Uses my language skills,
but that's all I can say."
And my husband was like, "oh,
she's got a good
civil service job," you know?
"Nice." [laughs]
And that's what I thought,
you know,
a... a job for life, basically.
[Dramatic music]
In September of 2002,
I was invited,
along with my line manager,
to go to the us
for a work conference.
And we went to San Diego
and while we were
at the work conference,
um, as part
of our sort of free day,
um, they said,
"would you like to go
on the naval base?"
And, you know, we can go...
And actually go on
board an aircraft carrier.
[Plane rumbling]
It was the first time
I'd been on
any kind of military hardware.
All these kids looked
like they were
18 or 17, you know?
They were
so fresh-faced and young.
And we asked
one of these young lads,
and we were like,
"what are you doing?"
'Cause they were busy.
And they said,
"oh, we're shipping off
to the Gulf in three days,"
you know?
And, uh, "we just hold this...
This ship out of retirement.
We've been painting it
gunmetal gray.
And we're... you know,
we're going to go off
to whoop some Iraqi ass."
And I was...
Me and my line manager
just kind of
looked at each other
and we were like, "what?
This is serious.
You know, they're not...
Just messing around here."
I suddenly thought,
"wait a minute,
what has Iraq
got to do with 9/11?"
I was convinced, you know,
that the... the Iraq invasion
would be ill... illegal,
that there was
no real justification for it.
On the 31st of January,
I went into work as usual.
It was a Friday,
I sat down at my desk,
and, uh, I was looking
at the various emails
that had come in,
and there was one from the us.
It was from, uh,
the national security agency.
[Electronic beeping music]
It was basically an email
that, um, asked UK, or gchq,
to assist the us
in collecting the communications
of, um, the six swing nations
that were sitting
on the UN security council,
uh, at that time.
So, that was, uh, countries
like Angola, Bulgaria,
Chile, Cameroon,
Guinea and Pakistan.
So, those six nations.
And the memo was written
in... in such a way
that it was kind of very...
It was sort of, you know,
"look, guys,
this is what we're doing."
You know, "help us out here."
And we need, quote,
"the whole gamut of information
that would give us policymakers
an edge in obtaining results
favorable to us goals."
[Dramatic music]
And that one sentence
justjumped out and hit me.
And I thought, "they want war
and they want to get it
by any means necessary,
including sub...
Subverting the diplomats
at the UN security council.
Blackmailing them, bribing them,
whatever it took...
To persuade them
to vote for this UN resolution
that would authorize
an invasion of Iraq.
And it was just like this
"oh, my god" moment.
I was shocked,
I was angry and I was appalled.
Because I thought
we're basically...
Colluding...
For the purpose
of launching an illegal war.
Tony Blair at the time
desperately wanted
UN authorization for legitimacy,
basically to cover
his own kind of, uh, reputation.
It would be
devastating for, uh, people
who had already
basically suffered 20 years
of, um, war
and sanctions already.
You know, there were
generations of young Iraqis
who have grown up
knowing nothing
but this
sort of chaos and horror.
[Wailing and shouting]
It was like
I was blinkered, basically.
I felt like I literally
could think of nothing else
except what was going to happen
to, um...
The nation of Iraq
a... and to some extent,
the British armed forces
who were going to be deployed.
National security, ibeheve,
should be in the interests
of the British public.
[Man] Anybody else [indistinct]
on the London bombing?
[Katharine] Those actions led
in the direct opposite direction
of British national security.
Launching an illegal war,
which mi5 themselves
argued in reports would lead
to increased risks
of terrorism and... terrorism
within the UK
and any British interests
around the globe.
And they were going to do that
through this subversive,
illegal, immoral way.
And I thought, you know,
"this isn't
what I signed up to do."
I'd kind of seen
behind the curtain
and the inner workings
of government
to an extent
that I hadn't seen before.
[Pensive music]
I went home that weekend,
I was completely obsessed
by what I had seen,
but I couldn't tell anybody.
I didn't tell my husband.
If you marry anybody
outside the agency,
you do not discuss
your work with them.
I just instantly knew
it was explosive material
and that it had the potential
to possibly derail the war,
that it literally
was exposing a corruption
of the UN diplomatic processes
for the purposes of a war.
We owe it to our children,
our children's children,
to free the world from,
uh, weapons of mass destruction
in the hands of those
who hate freedom.
This is a man who...
Has poisoned his own people.
It may well be
that under international law,
as presently constituted,
a regime can
systematically brutalize
and oppress its people.
And there's nothing
anyone can do
when dialogue, diplomacy,
even sanctions fail.
Unless it comes
within the definition
of a humanitarian catastrophe.
[Reporter] Downing street
insisted Mr. Blair
was just trying
to start a debate,
but to many, it sounded like
he was trying to enshrine
a new legal right
to launch preemptive attacks.
Suddenly, you have to choose
where your loyalties lie.
Do your loyalties lie
with your employer,
with the state,
or do they lie
at a sort of deeper level,
um, with humanity, with...
[Music fades out]
[Keyboard clacking]
We are just now
beginning to learn
the extent of the devastation.
But the reports
and images that we've seen
of collapsed hospitals,
crumbled homes
and men and women
carrying their injured neighbors
through the streets
are truly heart-wrenching.
The enriquillo-plantain
garden fault
runs right beneath the capital,
Port-au-Prince.
It's thought that
it hasn't slipped for centuries.
Last night it did,
releasing all that energy
as a devastating quake.
[Solemn music]
[Speaking in Haitian language]
[Man speaking
in Haitian language]
[Keyboard clacking]
[Fire crackling]
So many people
are in need of assistance.
The port continues to be closed
and the roads are damaged.
Food is scarce.
[Reporter] Waiting
outside the main hospital,
injured people
can only hope for treatment.
[Keyboard clacking]
[Music fades out]
- Mm.
- [Woman] Twelve.
[Claps]
[Helen] When I saw
the oxfam job,
you know, has such
an amazing reputation and...
And I just thought, you know,
"wow,
wouldn't that be incredible?"
And when I got invited
in front of you,
I was just so made up.
And I remember
walking through that door
thinking, "oh, my gosh,
this is oxfam."
And thinking, um, you know,
"it would be an absolute dream
to work for this organization."
And when they
offered me the job,
I was just,
you know, bowled over.
And my first few years
were just so inspiring.
I'd been working in hr,
um, basically
heading up the hr team
for the middle east
and former Soviet states,
and I was, uh, approached
to help with a problem in Haiti.
"Something's happened
in one of our programs,
and we need, um,
someone with hr experience
to go out there."
I knew very little about it.
Not really sure what to expect
and was really taken aback
by the, um... the allegations
that were being made.
[Airplane whooshing]
[Ominous music]
When I arrived in Haiti airport,
the first thing you met
was just a crush of people.
Um, you know, it wasn't
in the immediate months
after the earthquake,
it was sometime after.
But even then, there was
still so many aid workers
coming in and out
of Port-au-Prince.
And then you go out,
and just desolation everywhere.
There were still people
in tents everywhere,
on every single patch of land,
just tent after tent
after tent of people
still not in proper homes
or with proper running water.
And I was really shocked
by how bad things were still.
When I went out there,
um, I wasn't directly involved
in the investigation,
but, um, I heard
a lot of what was going on
and it was shocking.
You have people in
an exceptional position of power
working with people
who are incredibly vulnerable
and incredibly dependent,
particularly
after, um, you know,
a natural disaster or conflicts.
Port-au-Prince had been
absolutely decimated.
These women had nothing
and these aid workers
were there to help them.
Yet they were
exploiting them for sex
and taking advantage of the fact
that they were desperate
for... for money.
What are your choices?
Who do you go to?
Things have collapsed.
There's no
police officer to go to
because all the systems
you normally expect
aren't there in place.
You may be... have
no family or friends left
who've survived the disaster.
You could be on your own.
Some individuals
even now will say,
"oh, for example, in Haiti,
they... they were sex workers,
they were prostitutes."
And it just makes me mad
when I hear that
because they were
earthquake survivors
who had no choice.
You know, some of the women,
you... had babies, children,
and they had to make
the most awful of decisions
to prioritize the basic
needs of their children
by having sex with these men
in order to get the money
that they... they needed.
You know,
really vulnerable position
that these people were in
and the aid workers
who were there to help didn't.
The person who come
to help became a predator
and the person
that is already a victim
of a natural disaster
become actually a prey.
You know, I... I think,
like many people at the time,
I thought, "this is absolutely,
you know, appalling."
But you think
maybe it's a one-off.
[Suspenseful music]
I came back
and I became oxfam's
global head of safeguarding
in 2012.
And then I traveled
to more countries,
and it became evident,
sadly, quite quickly
that this wasn't...
This wasn't one country.
This was happening across many,
many of our country programs.
And it was the same story.
It was... very commonly,
I was hearing
principally women, um, in
the most vulnerable positions.
So, women who were divorced,
lost their partners,
who were
in low-paid work, cleaners,
um, people looking to get jobs.
They were the ones
being targeted.
And the people who were abusing
were, um, men
in positions of power.
Managers who were
abusing that position
to coerce people into sex.
But not just coercion, not...
There was, you know,
what I was hearing as well...
People were being raped.
There were
so many allegations coming in
within the actual offices.
And this is happening to them.
What is happening
to those people
out in... out
in the refugee camps,
um, in some
of the most vulnerable positions
that they can possibly be
in some of the countries
oxfam works in?
Um, to be raped
can be a criminal offense.
You know, if you're married,
you've effectively
had sex out of marriage,
um, and you could be
putting your life at risk
by disclosing
that that's happened.
The shame
it could bring on a woman
could mean that she has
to leave her village.
I mean, people are trusting you
quite literally with their lives
when they tell you these things.
And... and that doesn't
happen straight away.
It takes months
to build those relationships.
But built
those relationships, we did.
And... and more
and more allegations
were... were coming in.
What we're talking here about
is systemic sexual
exploitation and abuse.
And by that, I mean rape
and, um, sexual abuse
in all its form
of both adults and children.
That... that's
what I was hearing.
The... the aid sector, you're
meant to be there to help.
The fundamental principle of
the aid sector is, "do no harm."
And that wasn't the case.
[Mysterious music]
And I wasn't thinking about
consequences to myself at all.
It was just, "how do I
get this information out
in... in a way
that will best protect me
from being discovered?"
The only person I could contact
was somebody who I knew,
who I never named.
I knew
they had met Yvonne Ridley,
who was a journalist
who had her own, uh,
extraordinary story
of being captured
by the Taliban in Afghanistan
and then subsequently
converting to islam.
I... I phoned my contact
and I said,
"look, I've seen something
at work which is explosive.
I... I really think
it's imp... important information
that should come out.
The public should be
aware of this."
And they said, "send it to me."
[Dramatic pulsing music]
So, on Monday,
I went back into work.
I was not at my usual work desk.
And I thought
that was a ideal moment
to do something that I knew
I wasn't supposed to be doing.
I printed off the memo
and I folded it up
and put it in my handbag.
I felt like
I had a big sign on my head
that was alerting everybody
to my, um... you know,
my "criminal activity."
And I felt like everybody
could see it on my face.
It was just so,
um, nerve-racking.
And when I got out of work,
I posted the, urn, email
to this contact,
and then we decided
not to have
any contact between us.
It was like, "okay, this is it.
We're not going
to contact each other.
We're not going
to discuss this."
So, I had no idea
what was going to happen
to that email.
It was completely
and utterly out of the blue
when I went to buy
a newspaper, the observer,
which was what I usually
got on a Sunday morning.
And there was the email
right on the front pages
of the newspaper.
[Suspenseful music]
Utterly, utterly
terrified at that moment.
Threw the newspaper
down on the bed...
My husband
was still half asleep...
And... and said, "read it.
He'd never seen me
in such a state.
I was running to the toilet,
heaving my guts out.
Basically, I was
in a state of panic.
I didn't really know what to do.
I was just utterly
unable to function normally.
And I thought,
"how can I carry on like this?
How can I even work there
when I've broken
their trust to that degree?"
So, I went to work.
I went into my office
and my manager was like,
"what are you doing here?
I thought you were sick?"
And I said,
"can I have a word with you?"
And we went into a side office
and I just told her
straight off,
"I did it."
And she was like,
"oh, Katharine!"
And she was stunned.
And she put her arm
around my shoulder
and she was like, "oh-ii
and I actually felt
relieved by this stage.
I'd unburdened myself
of this enormous, um, weight
of guilt and kind of...
Anxiety.
And I was hoping
that they would somehow go,
"yeah, you know what?
[You were right." Uaughs]
It's incredible to think this,
but, you know...
"You've really
justified your actions
a... and, you know, the war...
Uh, is wrong
and we shouldn't be going
to war and well done, you."
[Laughs]
After we had lunch
and went back
to the security offices,
and they said...
"Well, you have to stay here
because, um, special branch
are on their way
down from London."
At that point
I thought...
"Ho." [laughs]
"Okay.
I'm in deep, deep trouble."
[Tense music]
[Helen] As the scale of
the abuse became apparent to me,
um, I was going
to the organization repeatedly,
saying "we...
We need more resource
to tackle
the scale of this problem.
And very disappointingly, that
resource wasn't forthcoming.
Things really came to head...
I... I'll never forget,
you know, this for me
was the... the turning point.
Um, we'd gone out
and surveyed
four country programs,
over 120 people,
and the results came back.
And... and effectively
they were saying,
"one in ten of our workers
had witnessed or experienced,
um, sexual exploitation
or abuse."
And... and in one country,
it was 7% were saying
they'd witnessed or experienced
rape or attempted rape.
And I said, "you know,
this needs to be presented
to the chief executive,
to the leadership team."
Um, and they said,
"yeah, you've got your slots,"
I had all my reports ready.
And I was thinking,
"this is the moment,
this is the moment
where the organization
is gonna really see
what I'm saying
a... and take action."
[Dramatic music]
I'll never forget.
Uh, an hour before I was due to,
um, uh... to go on
and... and I got this call and...
And basically they're like,
"you're no longer
needed, Helen."
I was like, "what do you mean
I'm no longer needed?"
And they're like, "oh, um,
they... they don't want you
to go in and speak to them."
And I just was
absolutely incredulous.
And I... I remember coming up
to my managers,
like, "what's going on here?"
I wrote to the chief executive
and I was like,
"what are we about if this is
not our number one priority?"
And... and his response was...
Um, he said, "oh, Helen,
I... we felt your report
said everything
that needed to be said.
Um, and, you know, we trust
that you've got it in hand."
I was like,
"I have not got this in hand."
"Why... why won't you listen
to what I have to say?"
I was in post until 2015
and I was getting promises,
but I wasn't seeing
the change needed.
And very sadly,
I reached a point
where I just
couldn't continue anymore.
I need to leave,
and... and leave I did.
I then took it
to the charity commission.
I thought,
"the charity commission,
they're going to do
something about this."
And what do they do?
They didn't
invite me for interview.
They didn't ask me
any questions.
You know,
you start to doubt yourself.
You think, "is this me?
Am I somehow missing something?"
Um, and they just
stopped replying in the end.
I think they just put me down
as some sort of, like,
you know, batty employee.
I don't know what they thought.
You know, should I have
gone to the press then?
I just, you know, I thought,
"well, if I've gone
to all these other people
and they've not acted,
will it make a difference
going to the press?"
And also, I was worried
about what angle
might they take,
how that story would be told,
and would... could...
Could there be a risk
of doing more harm than good?
I don't know whether that
was the right decision, um,
not to, but I decided not to,
at that point.
I'd just become, honestly,
a bit... bit obsessed about it.
It was everything
I thought about
and... and with a young child
and... and my husband
had been incredibly supportive.
But, you know,
we were getting to that point
where, you know, he was
like, "you got to let it go.
You've got... you know,
it's... it's re... you know,
it's reach..."
And... and it wasn't him.
It was me.
I had to let it go.
It was consuming me.
[Solemn music]
I was done with oxfam.
Um, and it was
really, really hard.
[Sighs]
And I think the...
The really, really hard thing
was feeling
I'd failed those individuals.
And I've always been someone
who's been... you know,
I've always been someone
who can fix things.
I think just feeling so...
So utterly powerless...
[Suspenseful music]
Life was... you know,
was taken over.
And... and then I, um...
I got this text message
in February 2018, saying,
"Helen, there's going
to be something in the press.
Just want to warn you."
That story
by Sean O'Neill at the times
just absolutely
hit the headlines.
It wasn't me that went to Sean,
but when he did,
I started to get calls.
Um, you know...
It didn't take long
for people to work out
that I'd been
the head of safeguarding,
um, during this period of time.
And I was faced
with the biggest
decision of my life.
Do I talk publicly about this?
If you speak publicly,
you are going to be responsible
for people not giving
to the likes of oxfam.
And what harm
is that going to do?
Because if those donations
go down,
those people
who desperately need help
are not going to get help.
And... and also people
saying to me, you know,
"you're going
to pander to an agenda
to cut the aid budget.
You'll just be
lighting that fire."
I don't think
anyone can prepare you
for what it's actually
like to be a whistleblower.
[Bob] There is this kind of...
Deep psychological reaction
to whistleblowing,
that I think
we can all relate to,
where no one likes to be
pointed out as in the wrong.
And people's response to that
can very often, at least
in what... what I see, be anger,
those kind of primal responses.
And people are met
with retaliation
and hostile behavior,
that actually
for a lot of people,
they're... they're
not going into it necessarily
with their eyes open.
Everything points
to internal reporting
because it's, uh, perceived
as safer for the whistleblower
and it's safer
for the organization.
Organizations are desperate, uh,
that they hear about wrongdoing
so they can rectify it
before the public
knows about it.
Excellent reporting is very
much... is a... a fail-safe.
You go to the regulator,
the police, an mp,
the press as a last resort
because you... the...
The problem's not been
dealt with internally.
So, people who go outside,
I think by definition
are aware that they
are being in... in brackets,
they might think
they're being disloyal.
They're aware
that they need some courage
and they're aware
that they are more likely
to suffer retaliation.
So, we're talking
about people here
who are driven.
The wrongdoing
is more important, uh, to them
than perhaps to other people.
I think when it comes
to retaliation
and when it comes
to understanding
what the risks are
of speaking up,
it can be very different,
you know, for different...
Different people.
And I think one thing
that might be different
specifically if you're a woman,
is just the trigger
of... of... of personal safety.
You know,
I do something very simple,
like go to the supermarket,
and if it's nighttime,
you know,
I have to be more cautious
than I think men have to be.
And so, to be constantly
on edge about, you know,
"will I make it
safe out of this?"
That omnipresent threat
of, "am I physically
going to be safe?"
I think is something
that's very different for women.
When women speak in a way
that actually really
does challenge, um, power,
whether that's patriarchal
power, state power,
um, other forms
of institutional power,
it's at that moment
that that... that the sort
of machinery of patriarchy,
the machinery of the state
comes into play to silence them.
[Reporter]
Harvey weinstein denies
all non-consensual relations.
Over the last few days, though,
a-list stars have lined up
to condemn the man
who once had such power
over their careers.
[Keyboard clacking]
[Photographers
shouting instructions]
[Dramatic music]
Behind the scenes
of the new yorker
and New York times
exposs that came out,
I was being harassed
and bullied and terrorized
by Harvey weinstein.
I knew that people were
trying... like, bugging me.
I knew that my house was bugged.
I knew I was being hacked.
I knew I was being surveilled.
But in order to buy time
to get these articles written,
I wanted the articles
to come out before my book.
I just wanted
the articles to come...
I just wanted it to be done.
I wanted truth
to be out there and...
But at the same time,
I thought I had an nda.
I couldn't remember
if I had signed an nda or not
and I couldn't find
the document.
So, I was on the hunt
for this document
through... for 20 years.
You know,
it was like old law firms,
you know, all these
kind of legal maneuverings
and people that in the past,
when it happened to me,
were really playing his side.
As it turns out, I did not sign
a non-disclosure agreement
back in the day.
And at the 11th hour,
I found that document
to give to the New York times.
It was like the night
before the article came out,
I knew I was like...
It felt like
I had a rope in my hand
with a fireball
on the end of it.
And I was just going like this,
just like, "okay,
we're going in for a fight now."
This is going to be
the fight of your life."
And it was.
[Reporter] A contract
to keep it all private,
last night,
miss mcgowan went public.
[Reporter 2] Police are now
investigating allegations
of sexual assault
from nine different women
spanning more
than three decades.
It's just so rampant.
I think that's the thing
that takes your breath away.
It's shocking.
And the only way it stops
is with people coming forward.
And that's an incredibly
brave thing to do.
I was indeed warned before
I went into the hotel room
that Harvey was most likely
to be naked or semi-naked.
More than 30 women
have now come forward
and their allegations
reach back 30 years.
A terrible abuse of power
is what lies at the heart
of the weinstein story,
and the allegations against him
have shone a light onto
how power works in Hollywood.
The culture is so rooted in
and permeated in,
not necessarily every single
one being a sexual harasser,
but a sort of a boys' club.
[Reporter] Revelations of
abuse and assault
are peeling back
the facade of Hollywood,
shattering reputations of
the powerful and the political.
The couple days afterwards,
it felt like...
It... it... it was
like the world blew up,
kind of, you know,
and my phone couldn't contain
the amount of messages
I was getting. Um...
And it felt like...
You know, it was like...
Damn... trial by fire.
And it felt like
I was open season
and I was fair game.
And I was.
The, uh... the interviewers
focused a lot on, uh,
just really degrading questions,
but I just felt like,
"if I don't do this,
who can do this?"
[Male reporter]
But is there any part of you
that has some sympathy
for that behavior,
or do you... how do you see it?
Like, do you see him as a victim
because he paints
himself as one?
[Scoffs]
I think it's, um...
If you had a dog
out there in the world
with his mind inside of it,
you would shoot that dog.
It would not be a safe dog
to be in the world.
But you also took $100,000
of Harvey weinstein's money,
didn't you?
Well, that's
very shaming of you to say.
I didn't take it.
I requested it.
I was trying to buy a billboard
that said
Harvey weinstein is a rapist.
And I do feel
that whole, "you took money"
thing is a bit like...
Do you understand
what this person
did to our careers?
You know, it was impossible.
Like, it was just every day,
it was, like, a new assault.
And what people
didn't understand was that...
There's actual trauma.
A lot of people
come up and they're like,
"I know
that was so hard, thank you."
And that's amazing.
Um, but I think
there's a lot of people
that are like...
Even on the left,
you know, you would think
everybody on the left
would be like,
"oh, she's amazing."
It's not so, because anybody
who upsets the status quo
upsets, period.
There was someone in Germany
who was interviewing me
and he said, uh,
"you're the one
who lays on barbed wire
so others
can walk in your back."
And that's what it felt like.
It felt like I was laying on,
like, flaming barbed wire
with, like,
the weight of the world
walking across my back
towards a better place.
And I was like, "okay,
that's what I'm here to do."
[Dramatic music]
[Keyboard clacking]
[Katharine] I was immediately
taken to the police station.
Taken down
into the custody suite
where they,
you know, sign you in,
take all your belongings
and phone and whatnot.
And I was put
in this cell, and I sat there
and sat there and sat there.
And, you know,
just didn't know what...
What was going to happen.
Meanwhile, my husband was going
to the police station,
going,
"please, can I see my wife?
Please, can I see my wife?"
So, he kept coming
and they kept sending him away.
Finally, he came
and we...
We had to talk in this room
with a glass partition.
He was on the other side
and I was on the inside.
It's very ironic
because my husband
was an asylum seeker
and he was
a failed asylum seeker
at this point,
and he'd actually
already spent a night
in the same custo...
Custody suite.
You know, not that many months
before I was sitting
in the same place, looking in.
And he knew how it would feel
because he'd been there before.
You know, "I'll be all right.
I'll be all right,
they can only hold me
for under 24 hours,"
you know,
"I'll be out tomorrow."
While all this was going on,
they were raiding our house.
They didn't want to interview me
until they'd searched the house.
And then
the next morning, you know,
uh, the, urn,
special branch, uh, detective
came and...
And I basically tell the police
exact same thing
that I told gchq.
And they said,
"thank you very much."
By this time,
it was nearly midday
and they were just
within the 24-hour window,
they had to let me go.
So, I was arrested,
but not charged at this point.
I was arrested
and bailed, released on bail.
I went home.
I could tell
the house had been searched,
things had been moved around,
and within three months
I was, um, dismissed
for gross misconduct.
And that was it.
And so, I was just in limbo.
I felt isolated
and I didn't know
who to turn to,
who to trust.
Eventually, a John wadham,
who was the director of Liberty
at the time, contacted me.
He clearly knew the law.
He clearly knew my predicament,
could understand it
and knew how he could help me.
It was
an enormous sense of relief.
You know, I was arrested
days after
the email was in the newspaper.
And then, you know,
the invasion began.
I was at home, I was watching TV
and I just wept.
I mean,
it was just soul-destroying.
[Siren wailing]
[Reporter] The portent of war.
But if the siren
was meant to clear
the streets of Baghdad,
it wasn't needed.
That had happened hours before.
[Gunfire and bombs exploding]
Soon came the sound of thunder.
But of course, it wasn't.
For this was a man-made storm.
[Explosions rumbling]
Using an image intensifier
on one of oui' cameras,
we could pick out
exploding [indistinct] shells
in the pre-dawn sky.
In the city center,
the Iraqi gunners
were blazing away.
[Explosions and gunfire]
[Katharine] It was
just horrendous.
And I felt like a hu...
A huge failure,
you know, I just...
The whole thing
seemed utterly futile.
[Suspenseful music]
There was
massive amounts of press.
And it's
just enormously daunting,
you know, to be the only person
sitting there, uh,
facing the judge
and the legal counsel
and all the, urn, journalists.
Um, and they ask you
to state your name.
I stated my name, um...
And then the def...
The prosecution said...
Um, "your honor, we have...
Insufficient evidence
for a realistic
prospect of conviction."
And, you know,
I was just sitting there going,
"it's all legal language.
I don't understand
what they're saying."
And then my defense team
stood up and challenged it.
They said, "what are you saying?
She confessed."
And then he said it again.
And this...
There was this back and forth.
And the judge was like,
"it... what... you know, explain.
Are you dropping charges?"
And then, you know, they said...
"Yes, my lord."
And then that was it.
The case was over.
And I was just... I was like...
"What?
Is this really happening?"
And then
everybody's kind of cheering.
And I walk out, I'm trembling,
and I walk out,
and I was just, like,
utterly overwhelmed.
[Reporter] Her relief
was there for all to see.
For months, Katharine gun
lived with the threat
of a two-year prison sentence.
Today, after a court appearance
lasting just 30 minutes,
she walked free.
I'm not prone to leak secrets
um, left, right and center,
um, but I felt that this was
a really, um, essential
and important issue
that needed
to get out to the public.
I was just over the moon
that they dropped the charges.
But on the other hand,
we don't know
why they dropped
the case against me.
[Reporter]
One question unanswered.
I would like to know,
um, why they charged me
and then four months later
decided to drop it.
Yes, I would like to know.
It was this kind of anti-climax,
because I had geared myself up
for this trial.
I was determined to fight it.
And, you know,
we'd had all these
kind of high hopes
that we could use
the defense of necessity
to prove
that my actions were justified
and to argue
that the war in Iraq
had been illegal.
Ifeelhke
it was a missed opportunity,
really, to actually
expose so much at a time
when it really
would have made a difference.
And then I was
walking down the steps
and out... out of the building.
And then there was
this massive kind of wave
of journalists,
all their cameras
in front of my face,
and this young...
This woman brought me
a bunch of flowers.
And, you know,
it's just...
Everything's happening at once
and you don't know
where to look,
what to say, what to do.
[Laughs] It's funny.
Anyway, I... I went
and met my husband...
And I knew
there was
going to be this, um...
Massive rush of press
to try and get the human story.
And I was like,
"I... I don't want to face that."
So, we went down
to Brighton, to my great-aunt,
and we were like,
"can we spend
a few days with you
until the, you know,
circus has died down?"
And I just... I just wanted
to get back to normality.
What I find admi... admirable
is how they really see
the bigger picture,
which is to safeguard
the public interest
and also how selfless
they are as well.
Somebody is just trying
to solve a problem.
They're trying to go
about their normal lives.
They don't think of themselves
as a whistleblower.
Until the retaliation begins.
It's not for the faint-hearted,
for anyone who speaks out.
There's no guarantee
that you'll still be protected.
You make a lot of sacrifices.
Often, it could be end
of your job or your career.
It could have implications
around your family
and friends and connections,
or you've been
harassed or bullied.
And that has impacts
on your
mental health, wellbeing.
Where you work,
and especially depending
on the sort of work,
it forms a bit of your identity.
All these people that you love
and form a part of your networks
are suddenly against you,
and that has this
real kind of, um,
explosive effect internally
and... and can
really damage people.
This is a huge process of loss
that the individual
has to go through.
Um, and at the same time,
they're trying to process
that actually, what they did
was simply standing up
for something
that they believed was
the right thing to do.
And it can take, um, people
a long, long time to recover.
And I'm sure
that there's lots of people
who, unfortunately,
might not ever recover.
And... and that's
an awful price to pay.
People are experiencing,
as a result of doing this,
profound mental health effects.
And anecdotally, PTSD,
um, just seems quite a common...
Not common, but more
than you would imagine,
uh, result
of these sort of situations.
[Suspenseful music]
[Keyboard clacking]
As the story broke, I thought,
"I've got to speak out."
Um, I remember
calling Cathy Newman
and... and saying,
"you know, Cathy,
I'm not sure I can do this,"
and... and I'd... I'd gone to her
because I thought
she was a reporter
who would do the story justice
in the sense of keeping
survivors at the heart of that.
You know, I thought
really, really long and hard.
- [Phone ringing]
- Right up 'til half an hour
before I was going to get on
the train to give the interview,
and I had a call from a... a good
friend saying, "don't do this."
You know,
"just please, don't do this.
Just think of the impact
of what you're about to do."
[Dramatic music]
But then the flip side...
There was this sense
that this story's got to be told
becauseifs
in the public domain now.
And if I stay silent on this,
I'm as bad as others.
Just thinking, "those people
who told me their stories,
who... who were brave enough
to tell me
about the abuse they suffered,
you know, if they were
brave enough to tell me,
I've got to be brave enough
to tell their story."
Oh, I don't know.
What was it
that got me on that train?
I'm just not sure,
actually, being honest.
But I did. I got on the train.
[Suspenseful music]
[Train rumbling]
And I asked repeatedly,
"we need more resource,
we need more resource for this."
And it wasn't forthcoming.
And it was
just a continual fight
to try and get more resource.
And I just
found it so frustrating
because I felt that our failure
to adequately resource
was putting people at risk.
But it sounds
like they didn't take
those allegations seriously,
that women getting
harassed, assaulted, raped
didn't really sort of
register with the senior team?
I struggle to understand
why they didn't respond
immediately for that call
for additional resources.
I really struggle,
and I still struggle with that.
Every answer
was very considered.
She didn't drop the ball
at any point in the interview.
And that's quite unusual
for these kind of interviews.
Very often an interviewee
who's making allegations
of this sort is very nervous,
and they do worry
about the legal implications,
and they worry
about the personal repercussions
for them
in terms of career and future.
And so, sometimes,
there'll be lots of answers
that they want to redo.
But with Helen,
she was very smooth,
very calm, very professional.
Do you think
oxfam can survive this?
I do.
There are, behind oxfam,
thousands of committed,
dedicated, incredible staff.
Absolutely.
The things they do,
they put their lives
at risk every day.
They are amazing people.
In terms
of the senior leadership team,
I think there are
some people there
who need to think, look back,
what's happened
in the last few years,
and think, did they do
everything they needed to do
to keep the beneficiaries safe?
Uh, I rememberjust feeling
like I was physically shaking,
um, because it was so raw.
All I thought is,
"if people are
going to listen to you,
you've got to keep it together."
And I think also
for the first time,
feeling like
finally someone was...
Someone cared enough
and that finally, you know,
the... the world was waking up.
And I remember the next day,
um, I had, uh,
reporters at my door.
I... the phone
didn't stop ringing.
My social media
was just, like,
binging all the time.
The weeks and months afterwards
were just such a blur.
[Reporter 1] Oxfam's
deputy chief executive,
penny Lawrence,
has already resigned.
[Reporter 2]
Was there a cover-up?
Have you ruined
oxfam's reputation?
It's a culture of misogyny
against female employees,
female humanitarian workers
and the beneficiary population.
[Reporter 3] Complaints
of inappropriate behavior
were made by three women.
The hundreds
of thousands of people
who support oxfam every month
are compromised by this.
And to everybody,
I do apologize.
[Reporter 4]
Oxfam was told tonight
it can't bid
for any more government money
until the department
for international development
is satisfied
it's made the necessary changes.
I knew there would be,
um, some backlash.
And I think, you know,
I thought it through.
I thought,
"yeah, there are going to be
people that are angry with me."
Um, it's very different
to experience it.
Now, I was living in Oxford,
where oxfam's headquarters are.
I was seeing people
day to day in the streets
who were associated
with the organization,
and... and they were angry.
And I get
why people were angry then,
because they're thinking,
"well, why's she
speaking up about this?
You know, what...
What's her real motivation is?
Is... is she in it for herself?"
And I think they thought,
"this is being
somehow overblown.
This isn't, you know...
This all
can't possibly be true."
At that point in time,
people didn't know
the full facts of the case.
There was one
particular moment with my son
where someone came up to me
and... and said
how they felt quite forcefully.
And I remember
just holding my son's hand.
And afterwards
he turned to me and he said,
"mummy, why are people
being bullies to you?"
Really, life started
to get incredibly difficult
for Helen.
She got spat at in the street
when she was out with Sammy.
She got shouted at.
Um, you know, 'cause people felt
that this was going to
impact jobs at oxfam.
But that was nothing
to do with the charitable work.
It was all to do
with poor leadership
andlack of leadership grip.
Whenever
I left the door, I didn't know
who was going to come up to me
and what they were going to say.
Um, and this has
never happened to me in my life.
I started to get panic attacks
because it's that sense
of almost like, you know...
It's kind of
a really basic human response
that someone's approaching you
and you... is to think, like,
"are they going to be friendly
or are they gonna be angry?
They've caught my eye.
They're going to
want to talk to me.
And what are they going to say?"
And just
your heart starts racing.
And... and I started to find
that was happening, um,
more and more.
And, um, it reached a point,
talking it through
with my husband,
when I just... I just said,
"I can't do this anymore.
I feel...
I feel the need to move.
Um, I just can't live
in Oxford anymore."
And that was just, um...
You know, that was
the most awful decision.
I felt so guilty
that I'd put my family
in this position,
and to take my husband
and my son away from their home
and from the city
that they loved...
Um, and I felt I'd let them down
by not being
strong enough to stick it out.
And I think when you...
When you leave something,
you kind of think,
"that's it, it's dealt with."
Um, but it doesn't,
these things follow you.
And, you know, sadly,
me and my husband...
Um, separated.
And, you know,
it's been really tough.
But it was really hard
because there was nobody...
Telling me what to do
and nobody that I could explain
how I felt... to.
[Choking up]
So, yeah, it's...
I don't know
why I'm getting choked up
'cause I've
talked about this for,
like, 17 years already,
butlguess I've never talked
about the aftermath.
So, on the one hand, you feel
like you're
supposed to be overjoyed,
and obviously you are.
But as you say,
there's this baggage of trauma
that you haven't had...
You haven't processed,
and you need to process.
But you
don't know how to process.
[Breathes heavily]
So, I guess,
I haven't processed it.
[Laughs] But, um...
[Breathes heavily]
For the first
sort of two to five years...
Um, when I talked
about the actual episode itself,
uh, I got"
stressed,
uh, and raised tensions
and palpitations and so on.
But that stopped
after sort of five years.
But that was talking
about the episode.
It wasn't talking
about the aftermath.
And nobody talks
about the aftermath.
So, I think that's
the difference. [Laughs]
[Director and crew
speaking indistinctly]
So, yeah.
No. [Laughs]
You know, people...
There's so much stigma
about being a whistleblower.
But, you know, there's a reason
why people whistleblow,
because you have to, and...
And... and that's
the hardest thing, you know.
People don't
whistleblow through choice.
And I think
people have always seen me...
And even as a whistleblower,
I've endeavored
to be this sort of,
you know, confident person
that I've always been.
But I remember
when I left oxfam,
just that sense of,
you know,
having let people down.
[Dramatic music]
He's been helped down the line
and through it all
by, you know, horrible people.
I don't know what else they are.
I don't know
what else to call them.
Um, monsters.
You know, because he's got
something wrong in his head.
But what's wrong with them?
The complicity machine.
That's who I really went after.
That's who
I really wanted to target.
And that's why
the establishment
Rose up against me.
Because I was coming for them.
It's so massive
and prevalent, this problem.
And my goal was...
Was just to call a time-out.
I was like, "time-out,
I think we can be better."
No more.
[Crowd cheering and chanting]
[Rose] There was
this massive groundswell
of people coming for,
you know, evildoers.
It was... but the support
I've gotten from the public
is incredible.
You know, I walk down the street
every day and someone gives me
a fist up
or says thank you.
But it was also really hard
because I think,
you know, when it was going off
and it was
just like an onslaught
in the world media, it was like
I was being triggered,
just like so many other people
were being triggered.
There's no renumeration.
You know,
there's no financial reward.
Um, people are like,
"you're doing it to get famous."
I'm like, "I was famous."
Um, I would say
now I'm a notable public figure.
I think I'm a strange creature
in the firmament of the world.
You know, I don't think people,
because of what he's done to me,
um... even including my family.
A lot of my family
doesn't really speak to me.
Because I think they believed,
you know,
all the, uh, horrible things.
I decided then to give up work
and I was a full-time,
uh, stay-at-home mom,
and financially,
we started to really struggle
by this stage.
Um, we weren't living
extravagantly by any means,
but, um, I...
We were basically getting,
uh, further and further
into the red, financially.
And I just thought
it was untenable.
Uh, and I didn't
really see a way out.
We decided to, um...
Make a go of it in Turkey.
But that's how
things are at the moment.
People speaking out
like Rose
and Helen and Katharine
is in all of our interests.
It is about brave,
exceptional individuals,
but actually,
it's about the whole of society
creating those conditions
to make speaking out safer,
to make speaking out
something that doesn't entail,
like, extreme costs
that have to be burdened
by these individual people.
We're not a healthy society
if we're letting some people,
you know, fall on the scrapheap.
Unless we make sure
that almost all of them
don't suffer
from whistleblowing,
we will never build a culture
where people feel comfortable
to do what we all agree.
You know,
and we really do agree.
There's no party,
political lines on this.
Everyone's like, "whistle
blowing is a good thing,"
we all agree
it's the right thing.
Their sense of integrity
and justice has driven them
to stand out and speak out when
many wouldn't have done so.
And I think
a lot of whistleblowers
are very single-minded.
I mean, everybody's
different, of course.
But I think you can see
that there's some similarities
with people
who are so determined
to speak out about wrongdoing.
Um, so I think
that is a very special quality.
And it's
not a quality by any means,
if we're honest,
that all of us have.
[Dramatic music]
The film about my, um...
Whistleblowing experience
came out... in 2019.
It was called official secrets,
starring Keira knightley,
and as part
of the, urn, promotion
of the film,
I traveled
around very many places,
going to, um, film festivals
and various conferences.
And I was, you know,
in it with a lot of people
who were
talking about whistleblowing.
I think we need
to take a very long, hard look
about what we value,
what we, um, need
in order to thrive and...
How we should go
about making that possible.
I don't regret what I did, um...
In 2003, blowing the whistle
on the, uh, NSA email
to gchq, I don't regret that.
And when I think
about our legacy
for our children
and our grandchildren,
you know, I can't just stand by
and do nothing.
[Soft, ethereal music]
[Birds chirping]
[Helen] You know, it was
an incredibly
tough time in my life,
but I'm one of the lucky ones.
I was believed
and the charity commission
and mps
all reached the conclusions
that what I was saying was true.
Um, what I think is positive
is that the organization
I know has,
since this has come to light,
worked really hard
to make things better.
Where I am now, I love.
Um, I live in a gorgeous town,
but I am now
a... a single mum with...
With my son.
So privileged
now to be, um, running
an, uh... an autism charity.
When I was speaking, um,
out about what
had happened at oxfam,
my son was diagnosed,
um, with, uh, autism.
And so, I went through
the process
of getting a diagnosis
and was diagnosed quite...
Quite recently as well.
And, oh, gosh,
it's been such an eye-opener.
Being an autistic woman,
I think that meant
I said the things
that perhaps others
might not have done.
It gave me a lot of new insight
into probably why I became,
uh, a whistleblower.
You know, I was asked
at the time, you know,
"why did you do it?
And, you know, wasn't
that a brave thing to do?"
And... and something
I always felt was,
it wasn't brave,
I... I literally had no choice.
I would do it again.
And that's a really hard thing
to say because the...
The price
for my family and friends
was in... high.
And by saying that,
I feel like I'm saying
that the...
The needs of the people
I was speaking up
for were more important
than my family.
Life has changed forever
because of speaking out.
And sorry, it's... and I still...
Still a hard thing.
So, it's not
an easy one to answer.
Um, but I would.
I would do it again.
[Rose] So, for me,
moving to Mexico
has been really instrumental
in my attempt to heal.
I still have stress every day
related to that monster
and the monsters
he's surrounded himself with.
I still suffer.
I gave up everything.
I gave up a beautiful house.
Some guarantee of money,
some guarantee
of a career, uh...
To nothing.
Dear Harvey.
No matter what lies
you tell yourself,
you did this.
Today, lady justice
is staring down
a super predator:
You.
I think I was in shock
that he was sentenced,
because he pulled
every trick in the book.
[Reporters shouting
and cameras clicking]
His lawyer squeezed his shoulder
as he was found guilty,
but otherwise,
he showed no emotion.
This court process
has been testimony
to the courage
of the women who came forward
and to the tenacity
of the investigative reporters
who shattered
the code of silence
surrounding the Hollywood mogul.
[Tense music]
[Siren wailing]
[Rose] I feel very proud
of setting up the dominoes
and knocking them forward
to fall all around the world.
Because this is bigger
than Hollywood.
[Reporter]
This case became symbolic,
about far more
than just one man's
guilt or innocence.
The allegations
against the Hollywood producer
sparked the #metoo movement
against
sexual harassment and abuse.
I would do it
again in a heartbeat.
I would go through it all again.
I was made for this.
Not a lot of people are.
And the other women
profiled in this documentary,
I'm incredibly proud of.
I know what it takes.
I wish I had
a little more softness
in my heart
towards people that are scared.
Butlhave a great hatred of fear.
It is
the number one enemy of change.
So, I salute the other women.
And I salute anybody
who comes forward
and fights the good fight.
Because it's all
we're here to do.
We have concluded
that the UK chose to join
the invasion of Iraq
before the peaceful options
for disarmament
had been exhausted.
We have also concluded
that the judgments
about the severity of the threat
posed by Iraq's weapons
of mass destruction,
wmd, were presented
with a certainty
that was not justified.
Even though they all...
Have all experienced these
incredible difficulties, um,
and attempts to...
Attempts to undermine
what they've shown
and what they've said,
history has shown,
actually, that all of them
did the right thing.
Um, and for that reason alone,
I think, is a perfect example
of why whistleblowers
are essential for democracy
and for a healthy society.
We're better because of them.
Um, we owe them a debt.
Helen's decision to speak out
had far-reaching implications.
As a result,
hundreds, thousands of people
around the world
are better protected
than they were
before Helen spoke out.
[Reporter] Without doubt,
one of the largest gatherings,
let alone protest rallies,
in English history.
[David] What Katharine, uh, gun
did was extremely brave.
It was driven by her conscience
of a [indistinct] one.
And there were a lot of
protesters about the Iraq war.
You know,
she was one of millions.
And I think
that what Katharine did
was a forerunner for snowden.
We got... we didn't get
quite the same shock
that gchq, NSA,
"oh, well, then, all right,
you can trust them."
That snowden then demonstrated
exactly what
those organizations were up to.
[Mary] They are our heroes
and we need to find
a new way in our culture
to recognize and not take
that voice for granted.
[Nneka] Key movements,
such as #metoo,
black lives matter,
made people aware
that they don't need
to suffer in silence
for what they have experienced,
and that there's
really strength in numbers.
[Crowd chanting]
[Erika] It was
the courage of many women
sort of
coming forward and saying,
"hey, this is not okay.
This has been
going on for long enough.
It needs to stop."
That you actually
saw actionable change.
So, that's progress.
That's progress.
[Bob] If there's
one thing that's changed,
[laughing] People have had
enough of this shit, right?
They've had enough with...
They've had enough with people
telling them to be quiet
and... and not listening
and putting up
with systemic abuse
or systemic,
sort of, just bad treatment
from people.
It's people saying,
"it's enough,
I've just had enough."
And that, I think, um,
uprising in public consciousness
is... is probably
a bit of a change.
[Crowd chanting]
[Energetic music]
[Birds chirping]
[Helen] In life,
there is some tough stuff
that happens in the world
that we see on the news.
And when our hearts sink
and we just think, "oh, my god,
what sort of world I live in?"
Then you see
these people and you just think,
"hey, you give me hope.
[Uaughs]
You're one of the good ones."
And these women in this film,
you just think, "yeah,
that's why I get out of bed.
Because there are good people
fighting the good fight
who want to make a difference.
You know, something hopeful."
[Music ends]