More journos come out against media attacks

We are the contributors to the book Troublemakers - The Best of South Africa's Investigative Journalism, a collection of stories we wrote and published across the SA media in 2009.

The stories are about the rich and powerful. About corrupt individuals, liars, cheats, thieves, forgers and fraudsters, many of whom would have got away with their malpractice if we had not highlighted what was going on.

Our stories are also about the poor and powerless: people in run down housing; Somalis under attack; people living under a toxic cloud; the deaths on our roads in illegally converted taxis; prisoners dying in Zimbabwe's prisons.

Not one of our stories has been seriously challenged or shown to be untrue.

Current attacks on the media will make it more difficult for us to do our job. Although we have to dig for information now, the Protection of Information Bill will make our job far more difficult. It will protect those who have something to hide and make it harder for whistleblowers to come forward.

The proposal for a statutory Media Appeals Tribunal threatens us with courts and fines

Our job will be harder. But it will not stop us or silence us.

SIGNED: Rob Rose, Julian Rademeyer, Stuart Theobald, Stephen Hofstatter, Pearlie Joubert, Johann Abrahams, Godknows Nare, Debora Patta, Adriaan Basson, Felix Dlangamandla, Gcina Ntsaluba, Fred Kockott, Jan de Lange, Alex Eliseev, Susan Puren, James Myburgh, Xolisile Moloi, Yolandi Groenewald, Lavern de Vries, Thanduxolo Jika, Warda Meyer, Lucky Sindane.