I have spent the past ten years in just about every war zone there was.

And I really believe good journalism is good business.

In emerging democracies like Russia, in authoritarian states like Iran or even Yugoslavia, journalists play a vital role in civil society. In fact, they form the very basis of those new democracies and civil societies.

I was really just the tea boy to begin with, or the equivalent thereof, but I quickly announced, innocently but very ambitiously, that I wanted to be, I was going to be, a foreign correspondent.

Mostly, as I said, a desire to do a bit of good, and the quaint notion that this is what we signed up for, this is the business that we have chosen.

Because if we the storytellers don't do this, then the bad people will win.

My view is that when lies become mixed up with the truth, it's a very dangerous world.