What is the latest news? Is the prime minister leaving the country for a conference or coming back? Are there any cyclones forming near the island? Millions of newspapers are printed every day throughout the world. Nearly every country has at least one daily newspaper.

What are newspapers? Are they only news printed on paper? How were they introduced? What pushed people to do so? Would it be easy or difficult to live without newspapers? I assure you it would be boring and dull. Why do people like reading newspapers? Is it to be well informed and to have an open mind on the various important topics of the day or just to show off?

We must agree that just as parents are part and parcel of our daily lives so are newspapers. Newspapers play a key role in our society. They enlarge our mental horizons. Newspaper-reading satisfies our intellectual hunger. Regular newspapers alone make one conversant with the day-to-day happenings in Mauritius and the world.

Newspapers give a correct picture of political, social, economic and cultural events, the cinema, astrology, sports and much more. Every day, new advances in every sphere of the world are reported. If newspapers are not read regularly and daily, we shall be in the dark as to what is going around us. Life without newspapers is impossible. Everyone wants to know what is happening. We are always curious about things that go on. Nowadays we can find answers to many of our questions by sitting on the couch staring at the television. But we do not always have a television in front of us and sometimes we like to spend more time taking in the information and thinking about it. This is where newspapers come in?

Mili BUCKTOWAR