Mission Statement
TheO Editors fully adhere to the principles for the conduct of a newspaper formulated by Eugene Meyer in 1933.
Our commentary reflects a Biblically faithful Christian worldview that the media respected for most of the time and abandoned only before World War I.
The Seven Principles for the Conduct of a Newspaper
- The first mission of a newspaper is to tell the truth as nearly as the truth may be ascertained.
- The newspaper shall tell ALL the truth so far as it can learn it, concerning the important affairs of the world*.
- As a disseminator of the news, the paper shall observe the decencies that are obligatory upon a private gentleman.
- What it prints shall be fit reading for the young as well as for the old.
- The newspaper's duty is to its readers and to the public at large, and not to the private interests of its owners.
- In the pursuit of truth, the newspaper shall be prepared to make sacrifices of its material fortunes, if such course be necessary for the public good.
- The newspaper shall not be the ally of any special interest, but shall be fair and free and wholesome in its outlook on public affairs and public men.
Eugene Meyer, March 5, 1935
* in the original text: "America and the world"
The Owner Values
So act that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end, never merely as a means. (Immanuel Kant)
TheO fully stands and advocates for the Judeo-Christian values which are foundation of the international institutions that shaped the world order and a relative prosperity.
We exert efforts to see things from God’s perspective, and to respond to those perceptions in the way that He would prescribe if He were to provide us with direct and personal revelation.
TheO stands for Core Values formulated by Centre for Economic and Justice:
- There is an ultimate Source of all creation and of all universal and absolute values such as Truth, Beauty, Love and Justice, which represent the highest ends of human actions. Many people call this Source, God.
- Nothing should stand between God and the human person.
- There is a hierarchy of human work: The highest form of work is perfecting the social order to elevate each person in his or her relationship to God. The lowest but most urgent form of work is for sheer personal survival.
- In interacting with nature to promote one's own perfection, every person must respect the rest of creation. Each human being, a steward of nature, remains responsible for conserving natural forms of existence, each of which is interdependent and shares the same divine origin with humanity.
- Under the ultimate sovereignty of God, all sovereignty in the social order begins with the human personae”not institutions including the family, the State, organised religion, the business corporation, the labor union, or academia.
- The essential means to achieve the sovereignty of the person include such inalienable human rights as the right to life, liberty, and access to productive property and free markets, equality of opportunity, and the secret ballot. These rights ”including the rights of property" are not ultimate ends in themselves, but they are intermediate ends or fundamental means to enable each person to pursue Truth, Beauty, Love and Justice.
- People create tools, shaped from the resources and energies of nature, to support the economic and social sovereignty of the person. Through private property ownership, each person can become master of the technology needed to realize his or her fullest human potential and dignity.
- People also create and maintain social institutions as highly specialized invisible tools designed to serve highly specialized social functions within a just social order. Institutions, as organized expressions of society values and goals, largely determine the quality of each person's individual and social life. As historical creations of humanity carrying within themselves the wounds of history, institutions are continually in need of healing and perfecting.
- The highest responsibility of each person is to pursue absolute values and to promote economic and social justice in his or her personal life and all associations with others.
The Humanity Interest
TheO is vitally concerned with the interest in well-being of whole humanity not only limited to the groups including nations. In our reporting we will cross boundaries and borders and will take multidisciplinary approach to provide a complete picture of events to the best of our ability.
At the centre of our attention are nations understood as an individual person, a human person with its inalienable rights, first and foremost a fundamental right of every child, woman, and man to be an owner of productive capital.
We, at TheO, perceive world as a family of people of diverse cultures with a different historic heritage. But we are not shy to emphasise that that the Western civilisation build on the Judeo-Christian values is superior over other civilisations.
The concept of personal liberties, including religious freedom, free speech, freedom of conscience, and most importantly the right to life and dignity for every human person, is based on the Judeo-Christian philosophical and moral infrastructure.
The example of this Western culture's achievements is the concept of the unalienable rights rooted in such notions as free will and the Natural Law and conveyed by the American Founding Fathers in the US Constitution.
Before the democracy are always unalienable rights, and personal virtue.
Conflict of Interest
This news institution is pledged to avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflict of interest wherever and whenever possible.
We have adopted stringent policies on these issues, conscious that they may be more restrictive than is customary in the world of private business.
In particular:
- We pay our own way.
- We accept no gifts from news sources.
- We do not accept payment“ either honoraria or expenses from governments, government-funded organizations, groups of government officials, political groups or organizations that take positions on controversial issues.
- A reporter or editor also cannot accept payment from any person, company or organization that he or she covers.
- We should avoid accepting money from individuals, companies, trade associations or organizations that lobby government or otherwise try to influence issues the newspaper covers.
- We make every reasonable effort to be free of obligation to news sources and to special interests.
- Any paid material is always marked clearly on our pages.
Fairness
Editors and journalists at TheO are committed to fairness. While arguments about objectivity are endless, the concept of fairness is something that editors and reporters can easily understand and pursue. Fairness results from a few simple practices:
- No story is fair if it omits facts of major importance or significance. Fairness includes completeness.
- Fairness requires rejection of disinformation and propaganda of illegitimate regimes, which are interested in creating of a positive perception of themselves in the Western public debate.
- We will not quote any statement of the undemocratic regimes - this is the old school principle of just reporting to which, we adhere. If we decide to report on it, we will never leave it without a comment. We are convinced that illegitimate, undemocratic regimes have no right to influence open, honest, democratic debates.
- No story is fair if it includes essentially irrelevant information at the expense of significant facts. Fairness includes relevance.
- Fairness includes diligently seeking comment from all sides of the story (with exception of illegitimate regimes) and taking that comment genuinely into account.
Taste
TheO respects taste and decency, understanding that society's concepts of taste and decency have its unshakable foundation based on the moral principles of Western civilisation.
Opinion
The separation of news columns from the editorial pages is solemn and complete. Although part of our mission is provide diversity of opinions which often require summarization to be digestible for a busy reader we will always indicate where the opinion of the author begins and where it ends in the article.
This separation is intended to serve the reader, who is entitled to the facts in the news columns and to opinions on the editorial and opinion pages. But nothing in this separation of functions is intended to eliminate from the news columns honest, in-depth reporting, or analysis or commentary when plainly labeled.
TheO adopts labels used by generations of journalists:
- Analysis: Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events
- Perspective: Discussion of news topics with a point of view, including narratives by individuals regarding their own experiences.
- Opinion: A column or blog in the Opinions section.
- Review: A professional critics assessment of a service, product, performance, or artistic or literary work.
Social Media
We will leave this area of activity to disseminate a pure information about our publication. None of editors will engage with any debates on these platforms.