Investigative journalism has, largely, been on its knees in SA for many years. Two years ago, things began to change dramatically.But let us first examine the reasons for the demise of investigative journalism. They range from financial pressures to the drive for transformation. It is argued, says Anton Harber in his cogent introduction to Troublemakers , that these have led to shrinking newsrooms, poor working conditions , a loss of skills and experience and a "juniorisation" of newsroom management.

From a political perspective the African National Congress (ANC) had, in 1992, "declared its media policy in entirely positive tones", writes Harber.

What has happened since?

The government, as is well documented, has become hugely frustrated by its inability to put across its message, its news. The SABC, once the toady of the apartheid government, has failed spectacularly to perform in the new era as it implodes.

Government pressure on the rest of the media might have been lessened, argues Prof Harber, if the SABC had been better able to fulfil its social and political role as the public broadcaster.

The ANC’s contempt for the media has become routine, he says, picturing it as greedy, only interested in making money, "a difficult thing for most underpaid, underappreciated and often risk- taking journalists to accept".

But Prof Harber, in the balanced approach you would expect of the Caxton Professor of Journalism at Wits University, also details how the power of advertisers is increasingly subsuming wider social and political roles for journalism. There is pressure on editors to deliver products to the markets that advertisers want to reach. It is complicated.

Earlier this year, co-editor Margaret Renn, a former BBC investigative journalist, along with Prof Harber and other judges of the 2009 Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism, noticed that the number of entries had increased markedly. And the quality was infinitely superior to that seen in the previous three years . Extremely surprised, they declared it was "the best evidence that pockets of journalistic excellence exist all over the country".

Some of the results (19 of them) are in this book. They are divided into four parts, one of which, Shady Characters, features SA’s Madoff, Barry Tannenbaum. It won the award. Athletics SA ’s Leonard Chuene, who played such a dreadful role in the Caster Semenya saga, also appears .

I particularly liked Pearlie Joubert’s dogged determination to find out what was cooking around former ANC chief spokesman Carl Niehaus’s reluctance to pay back a seemingly small amount he owed to a friend of hers. D ays later, another friend mentioned more money he owed . Ms Joubert began investigating but just days before deadline she still had not got anybody on the record. Just 24 hours before going to press she confronted Mr Niehaus. He burst into tears and confessed.

Schabir Shaik was paroled less than three years into a 15-year sentence, on the grounds that he was in the final stages of a terminal illness. He was caught breaking his parole conditions nine months into it by journalist Julian Rademeyer and photographer Felix Dlangamandla. They stalked him on foot before catching him strolling out of a supermarket in floral shirt and beach shorts. He later exploded, in a taped, expletive-riddled interview, "I want my f *%#@!! p ardon!"

The entries came from, inter alia, Talk Radio 702 and the SABC, the Sunday Times, The Daily Dispatch and a small community paper, Highlands Herald.

They cover deathtrap taxis, the Station Strangler, the dumping of thousands of day-old yellow chicks to die in a dam, and an Eastern Cape housing scandal.

The book reads like a thriller and is a powerful record of what excellent journalism is about. It’s a beacon of light in the darkening gloom created by the Protection of Information Bill and the proposed media appeals tribunal.

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Anton Harber, Margaret Renn (Eds.). 2010. Troublemakers: The Best of South Africa ’s Investigative Journalism. South Africa:  Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd

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- November 17, 2010 by business day

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Source: www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx (accessed on 18.11.10)