Joy of shared truth

Dear reader, citizen, fellow human, 2024 AD is testing our modern societies in ways we once hoped would never be repeated.

Autocratic regimes and aspiring dictators around the world have thrown a gauntlet to freedoms across borders, races and religions. Modern conflicts span the entire globe and are fought in an information expanse that is overwhelming in its reach and power. New technologies, and the platforms they enable, are battlefields on which our future is being decided – often without our permission and against our will.

In this maelstrom, it is journalism – fact-based, evidence-based credible news media – that has a lifelong duty to defend the self-evident values our civilization was built on. Worldwide, it is the journalists who live their responsibility to honor this sacred bond with our audiences and our communities.

In return, we feel the joy of shared truth – with You.

These special moments – when news stories save lives, improve understanding among people and guide us through rough times – are often lost in the avalanche of disinformation; destroying trust, the bedrock of our ability to live together.

Even the very meaning of Truth is under assault.

Journalism everywhere is struggling to maintain its standing and relevance to our own communities, and for an alarming number of our news organizations, daily existence equals a struggle for bare survival.

These are indeed extraordinary times – worrying to the core to every soul that cares about people, civilization and democracy that made it all possible.

And yet, these troubled days are also exciting and scintillating at the same time.

In moments when systems are crumbling and foundational truths are under pressure, we, the news media of the world, must show that we’re made of sterner stuff; the stuff that can withstand disinformation campaigns, sustained attacks and a flood of falsehoods.

Our business models have crumbled under the pressure of Big Tech. Truth itself is being relativized daily; what once was a common understanding of material reality is today often supplanted by fact-free interpretation.

In many instances, the very form of the word Truth carries the meaning of Lie.

These are not