Medical Treatment Support to be Provided for Public Interest Whistleblowers

The ACRC and KNPA on July 10 signed an MoU to expand medical support for corruption and public interest reporters, etc.

July 10, 2019

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

Psychiatric medical treatment provided to corruption reporters only will be also offered to public interest whistleblowers.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Pak Un Jong) and the Korean NeuroPsychiatry Association (KNPA, President Kwon Jun Soo) on July 10 signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the office of the Association located in Seocho-gu, Seoul to further cooperate with one another in reinforcing the protection and support for corruption and public interest reporters, including through the expansion of provision of psychiatric medical treatment to the reporters.

Since 2010, The ACRC with the help of the KNPA has been assisting corruption reporters, who have received psychiatric medical care due to a lot of stress resulting from workplace ostracism, threatening letters from the accused and litigations after reporting, with financial support so that these reporters can afford their medical bills.

However, some public interest whistleblowers could not receive such support, although they needed to be treated with psychiatric medical care, since they were not qualified to receive relief money* under the law, and therefore, it was necessary to expand the scope of those entitled to such financial assistance.

※ Relief money: as part of the whistleblower protection and reward system, it is provided by the government to public interest whistleblowers who have incurred costs after receiving medical treatment for the physical or mental harm they suffered due to public interest whistleblowing.

Given this, the ACRC and KNPA on July 10 signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at the expansion of medical aid for corruption and public interest reporters and promised to actively cooperate and provide mutual assistance for each other in improving policies and institutions to address the blind spots of the current medical cost support system and to strengthen the protection for reporters.

Corruption and public interest reporters who want to receive the aid for psychiatric medical treatment can apply to the ACRC.

The Chairperson of the ACRC Pak Un Jong said, “I expect that through this MoU, corruption and public interest whistleblowers will be able to receive proper medical treatment for their psychological suffering resulting from stress they have had after reporting corruption or public interest violations without worries about the costs. Giving a top priority to the protection and support for these whistleblowers, the ACRC will continue to come up with and implement various policies in an active manner.”