Looking at photos of the candle-lit peace march in Kuala Lumpur on Sept 27 with a restrained police force on the side, and reported in bits by the mainstream media, I am optimistic that the ISA, Printing Presses and Publications Act and sedition laws that stifle our journalistic work may be amended or at best repealed in good time. But to achieve what now seem like impossibilities, we need a robustly critical and transparent media to sustain the reformasi spirit.