The arms deal is far from over. One compelling reason for this is the national public prosecution directorate's Hollywood style of handling cases of this nature. But it's again not surprising to see new allegations against Bulelani Ngcuka that he was a Nat spy.

What is ironic about this is the sudden unsound decision from the same media, who want to play clean by adopting a selective approach when challenged to give all sides fair media coverage without running the risk of choosing allies in the whole Zuma-Ngcuka saga.

It is a pity some papers acted in their own self interest by not publishing the facts at their disposal . On the very same score we need also to agree that we might not all agree at all times about the newsworthiness of issues raised by journalists These papers have never ceased to be liberal, white middle-class, with a strong inclination to the white business community. Their decision not to publish the story of Ngcuka's alleged bad history is shocking, to say the least. The brutal action of suspending a journalist itself raises many serious questions about the interests pursued by those in influential positions . Who should in any case prejudge another journalist's work? It can't be that some editors are not aware of the journalistic principle that we the public have a fundamental right to be informed, even if there are conflicting views among journalists dealing with the matter at hand.

With acknowledgements to Thebehadi Bennet and the City Press.