ok so i have this code:

PHP Code:
<?php
     $sr_no=$sr_no+1;
     $sql="select * from member_friends a, journal b where b.journal_of = a.friend_id and a.member_id = $_SESSION[member_id] order by journal_id desc limit 0,8";
     $friend_res=mysql_query($sql);
     print mysql_error();
     while($data_set=mysql_fetch_array($friend_res))
     {
?>
<tr bordercolor="#666666">
<?php
     $name=$people->get_name($data_set["journal_of"]);
?>
<td width="29%" height="23" align="left" bgcolor="D5E8FB" class='txt_label'>
  <div align="left"><a href='view_profile.php?member_id=<?=$data_set["journal_of"]?>'>
    <?=$name?>
  </a></div></td>
<td width="28%" height="23" align="left" bgcolor="D5E8FB" class='txt_label'>
  
    <div align="left">
      <?=$data_set["journal_date"]?>
      <br>
      </div></td>
<td width="43%" height="23" valign="center" bgcolor="D5E8FB" style="word-wrap:break-word">
<span class="txt_label">
<div align="left"><a href='view_journal.php?journal_id=<?=$data_set["journal_id"]?>'>
  <?=stripslashes($data_set["subject"])?>
</a></div></td>
</tr>
<?php
       $sr_no=$sr_no+1;
}
?>
</table>
<div align="center"><br>
    <br>
    <?php
    if($sr_no==1)
    {
?>
    <span class="txt_label style1">You do not have any bulletins yet.</span><br>
  <span class="blacktext10nb">
    Bulletins are messages from and to all your friends at once. You can use bulletins to alert your friends about a party, things for sale, job hunts, etc.
  <br>
  <br>
    </span>
    <?php
    }
?>
and sometimes we may need that to be unavalible to the users. How do i have it ceck the db if there is anything in the field "message". If there is anything in it then it displays it. if not. it shows the code normaly.