In this editorial today we will be making some very important, timely and relevant points, if we may say so ourselves. So it is advisable that all readers stay tuned and give us their undivided attention. Thank you.

It pains us to say this but it has come to our notice that some readers ignore leaders. Some of you have been observed skipping entire paragraphs while perusing these editorials in the past two months. Others have even been seen surreptitiously turning the page to the sports section to take a peek at pictures of Maria Sharapova in action. And some of you have actually dozed off while reading the edits. HEY, WAKE UP! Go to the blackboard and write 25 times 'I will try my best to stay awake while reading the official mouth organ.'

What does it take to get some respect around here? Don't you know it is impolite to fall asleep while your government is talking to you? We take a great deal of effort to fill these pages with the viewpoint of higher up authorities, omitting no detail however slight and we don't want people dropping down unconscious all over the place.

At a time when the country is steaming ahead to a bright and prosperous future, it is mandatory for all citizens to be alert and to exercise their freedom to read what the editor has to say even if, like today, he may have nothing earth-shattering to say. So the least you can do is show us some courtesy and pretend to read this make-believe editorial and pretend to like it. Let's do a word count here, 240. Drat. Another 300 to go.

As the Secondary Vice - chairman aptly pointed out the other day, and we quote: "There is complete freedom of press in this country, you just can't say anything you like." We couldn't have put it better ourselves, the Vice - chairman hit the nail on the head, especially the nail that was sticking out. "After all journalists today must be objective," he continued, "which is to say they must have the same objective as us."

In other words, it all boils down to how we as a paraiah state internalise the totality of the changing paradigm. Are we just paying lip-service here to end-degree refinement or are we empowering constituencies and enabling communities in the long-term? Am I making myself perfectly clear? Do you see what I am driving at? No? Let me put it this way: we in the media have to ask ourselves whether we are going to communicate by word of mouth, by mouth-to-mouth or is it going to be foot-in-mouth?

And we may well ask: how are we going to institutionalise the monitoring mechanisms? Journalism is, beyond any shade of doubt, a dignified profession that requires a greater degree of fairness, objectivity and impartiality. That is why we have to rise above partisan and personal bias to toe the party line with a holistic bottoms-up approach in order to make ends meet with the overall aim to galvanise all sectors of society so that the present policy-polity dichotomy can be overcome sooner rather than later. As members of the Fourth Estate it is therefore our duty to fill these pages one way or another because this is all you're going to get.