Journalists who reveal wrongdoing while digging into company finances and operations may find themselves facing pressure from large corporations and wealthy business people.

Reporters may even find that their editors or publishers shy away from tough stories or investigative journalism, perhaps for fear of offending big advertisers, influential business people or powerful politicians. Making a case for publication can be difficult, but journalists who can show that their stories are meticulously researched and fair to all sides will have a better chance of convincing higher-ups that a story deserves to be published.

The best defense against efforts to intimidate or thwart publication is accuracy. But sometimes, even that is not enough.

A story involving a powerful businessman in Indonesia caused a firestorm for Bambang Harymurti, then chief editor of Tempo, Indonesia’s largest news magazine. The story detailed accusations that a suspicious fire in a market in Jakarta in 2003 might have been connected to a developer’s plans to build an expensive commercial shop¬ping center on the site.

The businessman behind the development, Tomy Winata, sued Harymurti and two of the editor’s colleagues for civil defamation. Then the government got into the act, charging criminal defamation and asking for two-year sentences for the journalists. The charges produced an outcry from journalists around the world, who said that prosecuting the Tempo staff members under criminal law rather than the press law was a major setback for democracy and press freedom in Indonesia.

Harymurti was found guilty of libeling the businessman and sentenced to a year in prison. The two reporters were acquitted. But the Supreme Court of Indonesia ultimately reversed the lower-court decision and said the journalists should have been tried under the press law.

Lawsuits represent a major threat to journalists, but pressure from corporations and public relations representatives are far more common occurrences. Negative stories can prompt an immediate reaction, especially if the subject of the story is a major advertiser. Support from editors and owners is critically important to resisting such pressure.

A number of organizations provide resources and support for investigative journalism. These include tutorials, self-directed courses and examples of investigative journal-ism. Among these organizations are:

Center for Investigative Reporting: http://cironline.org/

Investigative Reporters and Editors: http://www.ire.org/

Investigative Dashboard: http://www.datatracker.org/

International Center for Journalists: http://www.icfj.org/

International Journalists’ Network (ijnet): http://ijnet.org/

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/icij/pages/resources/

The Poynter Institute: http://www.poynter.org/

Philippine Center For Investigative Journalism: http://pcij.org/