There is an old saying that a journalist is only as good as his or her sources. So what happens to journalism, to the public's right to know, when our sources become too terrified to speak to us?

As an investigative journalist, I have only one task and that is to be the eyes and ears of the general public, to provide the paper's readers with information and knowledge. It is a task I have been undertaking for more years than I care to remember. But rather than becoming easier, that task is becoming increasingly difficult.

Hampering press freedom is bureaucratic red tape and chronic underfunding. Credit:Matt Davidson

Knowledge is power but it appears the public's right to such knowledge is being curtailed in unprecedented ways.

Journalists depend on sources to provide information and our ethical obligation is to protect those sources at all times. How can we protect sources when there are laws which can allow various agencies to find out to whom we have been speaking?