The purpose of this article is to provide a conceptual framework for trust as a prerequisite for whistleblowing in public sector organisations. A review of existing literature determines that organisational trust should be developed to ensure that whistleblowers can disclose perceived wrongdoing in a protected environment that is characterised by openness, honesty, integrity and trust. Lewicki and Bunker's three-stage framework focusing on the development of organisational trust utilised in this article is an example of how trust can be developed in a public sector organisation. Without organisational trust, whistleblowing might not take place within the organisation as the whistleblower might decide either to remain silent or to blow the whistle outside the organisation.