My journalism was spent on the Financial Times in Brussels, Paris and London. As a politician I have been a minister, successively, for agriculture and fisheries, housing, urban issues and housing.

i hesitate before i pronounce universal truths. What is true of one country is not necessarily valid in another. It is, therefore, up to you not to me to decide how relevant my remarks are to the Czech situation.

Politicians and the media are Siamese twins. They are joined irrevocably to each other. They are condemned to an embrace which represents a passionate competition,

Politicians tend to fall into two categories: those that are obsessed by the Media and its management (Harold Wilson, John Major) and those who are indifferent, even contemptuous of it (Mrs Thatcher.)But beware of falling into the trap of thinking that the things which fascinate the claustrophobic world of the national capital fascinate the "real people" outside it. Issues which have caused whole forests to be felled to supply column inches in London have raised not the slightest flicker on interest in the constituency.

The Media is a business. The public control it because they buy - or decline to buy- its products. The media does have an agenda- politicians know this and, indeed, welcome it most of the time. They know where they stand with various outlets. This is because people buy the papers etc which reflect their views. Newspapers reflect opinion rather than lead it.

In the UK the Tory Press is predominant ( but cannot deliver an election to the Tories). The Daily Telegraph, The Times, the Mail- all are stridently right-wing rather moralistic papers characterised by anti-European views. The Murdoch group's Sun is often held out as the key political paper because of its huge readership and the belief that its man-in-the-pub or man-in-the-white-van style echoes public prejudice. In fact the Mail is more of the bellwether- its strong appeal to women and to the prosperous middle class make its allegiance fought-over.

Politicians tend to think in terms of the written Press- that it because of their age. The electronic media is far more important because it relays instant, impressionistic, epigrammatic images. The image is increasingly important in politics and it carries its message implicitly with it.

Politicians have a hierarchy of desirable outlets: Today Programme with the 8.10 slot being the most coveted; the Sunday TV shows ranging from soft chat (Frost) to harder midday interviews; Newsnight- the late-night TV grilling.

Politicians and journalists know each other well. They form a sort of alternative family. The PM calls journalists by their first name at Press conferences. The chat between the politician and the journalist is incessant. Journalists are both the courtiers and the courted.

Politicians and governments seek to manage the news. There is a formal structure of briefing and a powerful apparatus of "spin." Increasingly what matters is not the news but the interpretation of the news- the "applied news" as it were. Alaistair Campbell, the PM's Press Secretary, has a system of reward and punishment applying to journalists. He is the cardinal at the papal court in control of the system of rewards, punishments and indulgences. There is a constant process of encouraging, harrying, cajoling. The media plays the game because in the end it benefits from the availability of the feeding station. This process is at its most pronounced in the caravanserai of journalists which follows the PM on his travels or in the cocoon of Brussels meetings where the journalist and the politician have a shared need to generate a good story. There is a complicity which suits everyone at the end of the day- a bit like the kidnapper and the hostage.

The BBC is somewhat apart because of its status as public interest broadcaster. But intense rows whoever is in government about its "fairness." Labour's appointment of Labour supporters and fund-givers as both chairman and director-general provoked an even more than usually fierce row - and has probably ensured that the Corporation remains strenuously neutral. The World Service is incomparably the finest part of the BBC- as its dominance in the Afghan crisis has shows. Because it is not propaganda it is highly reputed.

News is now 24 hours- with an insatiable appetite. This has opportunities and dangers. It tends to inflate the importance of stories- good and bad- through repetition and create a whole new breed of armchair pundits filling in space. News is endlessly recycled and when there is no one else to interview the Media interviews other journalists.

In the UK the most active debate now is about privacy following the incorporation of the Convention of Human Rights into UK law. There is no Press Law as such and no national privacy law, but the recourse to the Convention is causing serious concern that it be used as a back-door way to suppress embarrassing stories ( usually of sexual peccadilloes).

The tabloids or "red-tops" feed off sex, showbiz and sport. Recently news has even appeared on the front page -the Mirror- and there is some evidence that these traditional-format tabloids are losing readership to papers which are less obviously comics.

Curry's Guide to Handling the Media for Politicians

Politicians are more likely to self-destruct than to be destroyed. The audience is the viewer or reader not the interviewer.

1. Look smart. Blue shirt, tidy hair, do not look sweaty.
2. Calm answers. Keep cool. The longer the answer the easier the editor can select bits of it out of context.
3. Beware the constantly repeated question - the journalist is trying to get the answer he or she wants. Just repeat the same answer. He'll get fed up before you.
4. Determine what points you want to get across. Repetition works. TV is very intimate. It is conversation not rhetoric. Know how long the interview is so you can chose the exit line with a good epigrammatic phrase.
5. Don't attack your market place. You may hate the Press but you need it. If you lose your temper prepare it in advance and chose the way in - and the way out. And be ready immediately to broadcast why you lost your temper so that you win the "spin."
6. Don't tell half a story. If you do the other half will be made up. Journalists like confidences because it brings them inside the loop - which they like- and offers future stories.

Conclusion

Deferential journalism means corrupt government (France). a tame Press often leads to inefficient government- mistakes are unpunished and errors unridiculed. Even an arrogant, conceited, ill-informed and prejudiced Media performs an (unintended) service. And if it is to be hung is should always be allowed to hang itself.