Sunday Times editor Ray Hartley on the smear campaign against Sunday Times journalists, May 17 2012
Dear all,
Hear is my response to the latest round of baseless allegations against our investigations team ...
STATEMENT ON SMEAR AGAINST SUNDAY TIMES JOURNALISTS
A document submitted as part of the FUL court application to have controversial police official Richard Mdluli removed from office has included the unsubstantiated allegation that a story was published in the Sunday Times of 23 October 2011 by "journalists paid by CI" , with the apparent purpose of diverting attention away from police officers who were under suspicion.
The allegation, made in the document compiled by Colonel K Roelofse of the Anti-corruption Task Team, is made on the flimsiest of grounds and includes no supporting evidence.
This is yet another attack on the integrity of our multiple award-winning investigative team, which has been responsible for a string of high-profile expose's of corruption, mismanagement and brutality within the South African Police Service.
The article under question was not written on the prompting of a single "source" in the police. It was the product of a lengthy investigation which included information supplied by several police officers, evidence of police entry ledgers, death certificates and the sworn affidavits of several witnesses.