While we should sympathise with journalists from The Sun who have been suspended from their jobs, this episode should serve as a warning for what is to come in the future for all who work in the mainstream media.

The government has now clearly shown that it exercises a tight control over all media activities in Malaysia. It even manages to cover up the incompetence of its own officials (including a deputy minister) who okayed the publication of the 'Plot to kill PM' story but then shifted the blame to ordinary journalists, stringers and photographers.

It will do all it can to make sure that the scapegoats are faulted for this episode, while its own ministers are absolved from any blame.

In a sense, the journalist community too should bear some of the blame. They have been lax in defending their independence and have failed to demand that the highest standards of integrity and fairness are maintained.

The failure of the journalist community as a whole to stop the MCA takeover of Nanyang, as well as the pusillanimous actions of journalists in The Star and other mainstream titles to write stories with objectiveness has now led to journalists being no more than 'pen pushers' for the powers-that-be.

Journalists are now no longer part of a respectable profession. Like judges and policemen, they are now no more than tools of Dr Mahathir's iron fist government.