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  3. A recent case in Australia shows how easily fear can frustrate an informant’

A recent case in Australia shows how easily fear can frustrate an informant’

游客2023-08-31  26
问题     A recent case in Australia shows how easily fear can frustrate an informant’s good intentions. In December, a woman wrote anonymously to the country’s antitrust watchdog, the ACCC, alleging that her employer was colluding with others in breach of the Trade Practices Act. Her evidence was sufficient to suggest to the ACCC that fines of 10 million dollars could be imposed on "a large company". But the agency needed more details. So just before Christmas it advertised extensively to try and persuade the woman to come forward again. Some days later her husband rang the ACCC, but he hung up before disclosing vital information. Now the agency is trying to contact the couple again.
    In America, there is some evidence that the events of September 11th have made people more public-spirited and more inclined to blow the whistle. The Government Accountability Project, a Washington-based group, received 27 reproaches from potential informants in the three months before September 11th, and 66 in the three months after. Many of these complaints were about security issues. They included a Federal Aviation Administration employee who claimed that the agency had repeatedly failed to respond to known cases of security violations at airports.
    Legislation to give greater protection to people who expose corporate or government misbehavior externally (after having received no satisfaction internally) is being introduced in a number of countries. In America, it focuses on informants among federal employees. According to Billy Garde, a lawyer who was a member of BP’s Alaska inquiry team, they "have less rights than prisoners". A bill introduced last year by Senator Daniel Akaka to improve protection for them is currently stuck in congressional committees.
    In Britain, the Public Interest Disclosure Act came fully into force last year. Described by one American as "the most far-reaching informant protection in the world", it treats informants as witnesses acting in the public interest. This separates them from people who are merely pursuing a personal grievance. But even in Britain, the protection is limited. Rupert Walker, a fund manager, was fired by Govett Investments in September 2001 for expressing concerns in the Financial Times about a group of people of investment trusts that invest in each other.
选项 A、Inconsistent.
B、Disheartening.
C、Unreasonable.
D、Bureaucratic.
答案 B
解析 首段列举发生在ACCC和那名妇女之间的例子是为了说明该段主题，即首句。开始的时候，那名妇女匿名举报，就是害怕暴露身份，但当时她仍然相信ACCC能按照她提供的证据采取相应的措施，可是ACCC却大登广告，这无异于暴露了这名妇女的身份特征，虽然ACCC可能因为要取得更多的证据才这样做，但它没有考虑到保护证人安全的重要性，这使那名妇女失去了对它的信任，不敢再与其合作，由此可见，选项B为本题答案。选项A意为“不一致的”，但文章并没有对比ACCC对这名妇女和对其他事件的态度，“不一致”无从说起；选项C意为“没有理由的”，但事实上；ACCC的做法有它自己的理由，只是他们没有考虑周全；选项D意为“官僚主义的”，ACCC虽然考虑不周到，但他们的原意是好的，为了慎重而收集更多的证据，所以选项D也不适当。
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