The Fifth Estate – Out to own TODAY – Whistleblowers throughout History
THE FIFTH ESTATE is a powerful exposé based on the real-life events of the notorious Wikileaks. Starring BAFTA Award winner Benedict Cumberbatch, who gives an outstanding performance, it’s an adrenaline fuelled dramatic thriller that highlights the secrets those in power wish to keep, and the lengths they will go to keep them.
To celebrate the film’s DVD and Blu-ray release on 17th February 2014, courtesy of Entertainment One, we’ve examined some famous and infamous off screen whistle blowers throughout time...
| Julian Assange is an Australian journalist and the founder and editor in chief of Wikileaks. Founded in 2006, Wikileaks is an outlet that obtains secretive and classified information from media sources and whistleblowers, and makes it public. Wikileaks became extremely famous when Assange began to publish extremely secret U.S military documents. |
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| Cheryl Eckard - A modern day whistleblower was responsible for the exposure of contamination issues within worldwide drug and pharmaceutical manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). In 2010, it was uncovered that one of the biggest producers of medicine in the world was exposed to the contamination of certain drugs being made at one of their factories in Puerto Rico. As one of GSK’s Quality Assurance Managers, she became aware of the contamination problems going on, and despite her job being on the line, Cheryl Eckard continually complained to GSK, and was eventually let go by the company. After blowing the whistle on the wrong doings of GSK and playing an integral part in unravelling criminal activity, she was awarded a huge $96 million whilst GlaxoSmithKline was fined $750 million. In this case, doing the right thing certainly paid off. |
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| Marc Hodler - The Olympic Games are a complete expression of unity and pride for any country, bringing people and places together and demonstrating unique talents all over the world. However, in 2002 The Olympic Games proved itself to exhibit corruption and scandal when former Swiss ski coach and member of the International Olympic Committee, Marc Hodler, unveiled bribery and lies in the build up to the games. After many frustrating years of losing, members of Salt Lake City were adamant to become the next home of the Olympic Games, by giving away cash, holidays and even plastic surgery to members of the OCI their votes were secured. Marc Hodler bought this to the press, and as a result new rules were implemented and committee members were replaced. |
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| Mark Whitacre - Played by Matt Damon in the 2009 film The Informant!, Mark was happily married, rich and extremely well respected at his company. Mark Whitacre was an executive at Archers Daniel Midland; a huge food company in America. He was one of the first Execs to be hired as a whistleblower for the FBI, after telling them plans his company had to implement price fixing. For three years, Mark Whitacre acted as an informant for the FBI. At the same time, he was also under investigation and as a result of $9.5 million in various frauds; he was sentenced to eight and a half years in federal prison. |
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| Edward Snowden is a former CIA employee and a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor. He was brought to light when he disclosed extremely high profile and secret documents to several media outlets. His act, initiated the NSA leaks which revealed details of surveillance operation run by the NSA and its international partners. A hero to some, and a traitor to many, Snowden’s release of confidential material was named the most significant leak in US history. |
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| The Fifth Estate Film Page | Win The Fifth Estate on Blu-ray THE FIFTH ESTATE WILL BE RELEASED ON BLU-RAY™ AND DVD TODAY, COURTESY OF ENTERTAINMENT ONE
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