ACCLAIMED true crime author, journalist and academic Lindsay Simpson lamented at the Whitsunday Writers Festival today the loss of a multi-million dollar slush fund used to defend the masthead against legal action when she worked at the Sydney Morning Herald.

Ms Simpson is a truth seeker and as member of the fourth estate believes it's her duty as a journalist and author to cut through the spin, the hype, the lies and misinformation to deliver what the people deserve.

After her presentation at the Whitsunday Writers Festival today she spoke about the message her speech was designed to impart.

"I was hoping to alert people to how much that goes on that is a hidden addenda...to start questioning what they read,” she said.

Following the rise of infotainment and the fall of investigative journalism and the changing media landscape there has been one causality: the truth, Ms Simpson said.

Ms Sipmson is well known for her books Brothers in Arms, Honeymoon Dive and most recently, Where is Daniel, the story of the murder of Sunshine Coast schoolboy Daniel Morcombe.

"As a writer you have all sorts of duties both ethical and legal to tell true stories.”

"They are much harder to tell than fiction because you are confronted by all these complexities,” and the answering of the question "what is truth, does it exist?”

"Even people that write in diaries lie to themselves. But does it mean it's the truth?”

The festival continues today and tomorrow.

From 10.15am tomorrow at Lure in the Abell Point Marina complex Ms Simpson will host a workshop called Writing Real Stories.