I have been reading news from other sources rather than the government-controlled newspapers for several years now, so I did not give much thought to the news blackout on the hunger strike of the ISA 6 and their supporters at Taman Melewar.

After reading your report that the blackout was lifted only because the foreign press had picked up the story and highlighted the blackout, I realised how important it is to constantly remind ourselves and others of the non-independence of the government-controlled presses. I believe that we must still point to the danger of 'manufactured consent' notion of government presses.

It was horrifying to note the misreporting of these presses of the hunger strike as well. So I still hope that we must continue with the boycott of mainstream press, if not a total boycott, some partial boycott must continue to show our unhappiness.

Maybe we can buy the paper and pull out the cartoons or sports pages or business news and return the pages of local news back to the vendor  World Press Freedom Day (May 3) is a good day to start this.

I wonder what the journalists themselves are thinking or discussing when something like this  a news blackout  occurs. Do they blithely carry on or are they thinking seriously about it and the state of media freedom and their individual and collective role in providing information? Can journalists enlighten me on this?