Whistle-blowers, not reporters, are the stars of the show
Calls are being made by eminent journalists for the Sunday Times to reveal its sources for the 'death squad' story
I still vividly remember the day at Vrye Weekblad when we planned the front page of that week’s edition and the subject was going to be ourselves. We were awaiting the verdict in the Lothar Neethling defamation case. He had sued us for reporting that he had supplied police death squads with poison. What was it going to be, guilty or not guilty, we asked editor Max du Preez and reporter Jacques Pauw. They didn’t know, so we made up two pages, one reporting the verdict, the other just a blacked-out page. Costs awarded against us would mean the paper had to close. I and other staff members found it odd that Du Preez and Pauw called it a 50-50 situation. Why weren’t they sure? They never shared the finer details of their investigations with the rest of us, but we were united in the fight against apartheid and it was one for all, all for one. Almost three decades later Du Preez and Pauw are at the forefront of journalists rounding on the Sunday Times trio blamed for the rogue unit debacl...
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