I hope sense and sensibility prevail. We do not want media constraints that will impact on press freedom to go into place. There are already enough constraints on people and we at individual level are often too frightened tospeak up because we are cobbled. Thank God I often think that authority cannot read my mind because the rest of my private life can be sourced through the processes in place that strip privacy. I can’t say what I think and neither can countless peoiiple because to do so would not be ‘politically correct’.

In the face of this deprivation, the freedom of media to comment and invite response has been paramount in our lives and for us to have this freedom curtailed would be a bad thing. I would bet that one of the first things to alter would be the right of media to comment on political issues and government initiatives. This would be the thin edge of the wedge on the last of our institutions to be unfettered.

We already have myriads of people working for both government and private organisations who are frightened to speak out for fear of retribution. We are already a nation of frightened souls acquiescing our heritage to the tsunami of ‘modern’ cultural change