Whistle Blower (film)

Whistle Blower (Korean: 제보자; RR: Jeboja) is a 2014 South Korean film directed by Yim Soon-rye.

Though fictionalized, the film is based on real-life scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who was at the center of one of the largest investigations of scientific fraud, named the Hwang affair, in recent memory. Hwang, then a professor of biotechnology at Seoul National University (SNU), gained international renown in 2004 after claiming that he had successfully carried out experiments cloning human embryonic stem cells. In 2005, an anonymous tip from whistleblower Ryu Young-joon, a former researcher at Hwang's lab, led to MBC program Producer's Note uncovering Hwang's ethical violations and fabricated data, which was confirmed by an SNU investigative panel in 2006. Hwang's research was discredited and in 2009, a South Korean court convicted him of embezzlement and bioethical violations.