Media organisations on Thursday asked the Hefer Commission to withdraw a subpoena against the journalist who was a source of the allegation that Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid spy.

Veteran journalist Raymond Louw told the commission that forcing former Sunday Times journalist, Ranjeni Munusamy, to testify would endanger 13 years of negotiations between media organisations, the department of justice and the South African Law Reform Commission about the removal of Section 205 from the Criminal Procedure Act.

The section can be used to call on a person to reveal their sources of information to a judicial officer or face imprisonment.

Munusamy arrived at the Appeal Court in Bloemfontein on Thursday and before taking her seat hugged Ngcuka's two accusers, Mac Maharaj and Mo Shaik.

The inquiry stemmed from a report in the City Press which Munusamy initiated. She was accordingly subpoenaed.

At the start of proceedings on Thursday, commission chairperson Judge Joos Hefer said he had received letters from the South African National Editors' Forum and the Freedom of Expression Institute's anti-censorship programme on the issue.

The first submission was from Louw who asked the commission to withdraw the subpoena against Munusamy.

He said issuing subpoenas against journalists violated the constitutional rights to human dignity, freedom of expression, freedom to receive or impart information, and freedom to practise one's occupation freely and receive information from the state.

Forcing Munusamy to testify would damage the media's role as the fourth estate in the political arena and as watchdog over public life.

Under the Commissions Act a commissioner may excuse a witness from testifying if the witness can show sufficient cause for refusing to do so.

Louw said that as a journalist Munusamy could show such sufficient cause. He added that forcing journalists to testify could prevent the flow of confidential information as there might well be good reasons why people did not wish to disclose what they knew to the authorities.

Advocate John Campbell, acting for Munusamy, said there were alternatives the commission could pursue to get information and until these were exhausted journalists should not be called on to give evidence.

Hefer asked if this meant the mere practising of journalism should be considered as a "just cause" not to give evidence before a commission.

Campbell responded that he was confining his argument to the revealing of sources.

He said Hefer had the discretion to excuse Munusamy from giving evidence.

With acknowledgements to Estelle Ellis and the Cape Argus.