"I saw this phenomenon of `I've got to have it now' last week while watching the coverage of US elections,'' Mr Hall said. Competition among television networks to ``have the news first'' led to the Republican candidate Mr George Bush being declared the new US President, even before the votes were counted.

Seeing technology as a major challenge, Mr Hall said there have to be organisations which maintain the basic values and standards. ``You must be accurate and impartial, no matter how fast technology pushes you. Trust, which is in the end all that news organisations have, is what matters and it's easy to lose.''