We, the people, have to understand where we’ve been before we can know where we are. Storytellers tell us where we’ve been.

We have to understand where we are, before we can glimpse where we’re going. Storytellers tell us where we are.

Free, honest, fearless Storytelling in the service of the people is the only trustworthy guide to where we are and where we’re going.

Free, honest, fearless Storytelling is the currency of the Free Marketplace of Ideas.

The Free Marketplace of Ideas is the mythical place where Journalists seek out and report ideas, beliefs and opinions bubbling away in our democratic society and expose them to the harsh and critical light of the people’s judgment.

If the people decide the ideas, beliefs and opinions are good and worthwhile, the Marketplace accepts them and they flourish and flower.

If the people decide the ideas, beliefs and opinions are bad and worthless, the Marketplace rejects them and they wither and die.

In the Free Marketplace of Ideas it is always the people who do the judging. Not the Journalists. Not the governments. Not the courts. Not the police. Not the army. Not the churches. Not the rich. Not the powerful.

The people.

It is both our privilege and our responsibility as Storyteller-Journalists in a democracy to serve and guard the Free Marketplace of Ideas – to keep it open and keep it honest – for the people we serve.

We hold this privilege and responsibility as a public trust because we are the people’s servants and surrogates.

We go where they cannot go. We ask what they cannot ask. We report in their name.

It is demanded of us as Storyteller-Journalists, therefore, that we act responsibly at all times and are truly accountable to the people we serve.

It is demanded of us as Storyteller-Journalists that we put the people’s interests before either our own or those of the powerful.

It is demanded of us as Storyteller-Journalists that our first loyalty is to the people – and the people’s right to know.

Underlying everything we do is our responsibility as Storyteller-Journalists to report freely, honestly and fearlessly in the name of the people we have the honour to serve.