And that is what I am raising tonight. I would offer the suggestion that the mix, generally speaking, is skewed in the new and democratic South Africa in which we find ourselves - probably partly because of the legacy of a previous era when news values were totally distorted by the disgraceful system then in place. In those days, really good news for South Africa was bad news for the Government of apartheid. But we undeniably emerged from that era with a strong tradition of journalists, as a knee-jerk response, being against the government of the day. I believe that the media should break out of this outdated mould.
Good news is now good news.
There is no confusion or contradiction. There is no heroism in seeking, for instance, to defy the laws of a representative government acting in accordance with the requirements of democracy. There is, moreover, no explicit or implied threat by a democratic government when it simply criticises the media. In a free environment, the limits of debate are set not by government but by good taste, the ordinary law and the constitution. To fight battles as if we were still in the old mould may not be the best way to proceed.