Truth

Some folk have difficulty in reading white text on a black background, so this morning I've changed it back to the old format. I hope it's easier to read now. I was thinking about a comment I heard on television yesterday, that the truth cannot be spoken in Australia and I find this highly disturbing on a number of levels. What is the point of having a democracy if facts and the reality of a situation cannot be spoken about out loud for fear of litigation from the parties involved? I'm wondering if the fact that truth is often meshed with personal opinion or interpretation is the problem, rather than the truth itself and how that interpretation is presented in the media. Or is it that we simply that do not tolerate the truth and some truth will always hide behind deception? I loathe beginning my morning with such a thought, but we appear to live in a world in which everyone is under suspicion and rather than being innocent until proven guilty, we are all potentially guilty until proven otherwise. Is this what 9/11 did to us all, or was it always like this and we just didn't realize the truth of the situation. Do new communications technologies purported to bring us together, enabling a sharing of ideas & cultures mask the real situation, which is that individuals are hiding behind the secrecy that these very technologies enable? And, what exactly is being communicated - what truth?