Six Years
Readers expect only a few things from a newspaper: the news of what is happening in their country and the world, some analysis that they can either accept or reject but that should start as a jumping off point for their own independent thought, some culture, and some fun. We have tried to provide all this to our readers, and the feedback we have received (never enough!) indicates that we have had some success. More than ever before, a newspaper is a forum for endless dialog with its readers. We cannot tell you what to think, only what our various authors think and hopefully why. Your job is to tell us when you think we are wrong, and we are most gratified when you tell us that we have done something right.
A newspaper is also a factory line. All those things you wait for in the mail or lining up at the kiosk take time to plan, obtain, write, edit (in our case translate and edit), and serve up in as good a form as we are able. The desk editors propose, the editors approve, and the journalists dispose. Every newspaper works that way. Some just do it better than others. A newspaper is a business like any other, except that we can only welcome the competition. If they can do it so can we, and you are the better served. But we do it as best we can. This is important for us all.
German philosopher Jurgen Habermas has emphasized that for the existence of civil society, the essential precondition of Western participatory self-government, we need a communicative space independent from government aimed at achieving agreement among participants in that discourse (or, more precisely, airing our differences so that we can at least manage them). Our newspaper has never claimed a monopoly on the truth, but we would like acknowledgment that we can from time to time offer at least some of it, which we try to share in three languages. When other papers have problems we try to defend them and hope the same from them. Journalists are a jealous breed, and there are plenty who will tell you of their own virtues and others’ shortcomings. We acknowledge our own shortcomings, which we try to keep to a minimum, without focusing on those of others. We realize that civil society and that ever so elusive ideal of democracy require a diversity of opinions. We welcome the diversity, but our word is also out there for our readers. We need not say how well we are doing. You decide.
Incidentally, Den’/The Day prides itself on documenting contemporary life through the camera’s lens. One and all are invited to our exhibition at Ukraine House on September 14-15 and the Vernadsky National Scientific Library from September 17 to October 17. Admission is free, and, as always, your comments are welcome
