article_snippet: A lecturer and his wife Jenny have been sacked from a struggling university after being accused of leaking embarrassing stories about a struggling university controversial £200,000-a-year vice-chancellor to Press, a struggling university emerged yesterday.
article_snippet: The latest case demonstrates how harshly public bodies treat those even suspected of being whistleblowers, let alone those who are proven to have leaked information to the media.
article_snippet: The latest case comes amid mounting alarm that staff in all organisations are not being protected from punishment if staff in all organisations report staff in all organisations concerns to the Press.
article_snippet: The sackings were also branded a worrying blow against the tradition of free speech on campuses.
article_snippet: General secretary Sally Hunt said: ‘These sackings are completely unjustified.
article_snippet: Nobody likes looking a bit silly in public, but to start axing staff without evidence is the response of a desperate despot, not a university vice-chancellor.
article_snippet: ’ Alan Smithers, professor of education at the University of Buckingham, said dismissing university staff accused of whistleblowing could have a chilling effect on freedom of speech.
article_snippet: Whistleblowing in the public sector is supposed to be encouraged, but last week there was alarm that Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood had agreed plans to bar 430,000 civil servants from talking to the Press without permission or face being sacked.