The role of the media will be in the spotlight today when public hearings of the Hefer Commission proceed in Bloemfontein.

Commission secretary John Bacon said journalist Ranjeni Munusamy would be called to be their first witness.

The former Sunday Times writer was the main author of a City Press report in which spying allegations against national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka first surfaced.

The report alleged that the African National Congress had investigated Ngcuka for being a suspected agent for the apartheid government.

Munusamy leaked the story to the City Press when the Sunday Times refused to publish it. She has since resigned.

Earlier in the week she indicated that she would turn up for the hearing, as she was subpoenaed to do. However, she would refuse to name her sources, she said.

A submission by journalist Raymond Louw was also on today's programme, Bacon said.

Reportedly he will argue on behalf of the SA National Editor's Forum that journalists should not testify before such commissions.

With acknowledgement to the Business Day.