"Over time, dear readers, I have learned that newspapers must be uncomfortable and feared in order to serve a useful civic function. They must be uncomfortable even when they are moderate and balanced, like the Corriere. The truth is that good journalists often know more than those who would like to silence them. In this country, with its modest culture of rules, information is considered by much of the ruling class to be a necessary evil. It is one of the many signs of backwardness. Like it or not, news is news. Facts are facts, even when they contradict the opinions of the writer. And investigative journalism is a civic duty, as well as a professional one. Because democracies thrive on transparency and debate, on attention and respect. Where there is transparency, there is recognition of merit, competition and growth. Opacity leads to regression. A democratic society does not decline only if it has an informed and responsible public opinion, which, as Luigi Einaudi, a contributor to the Corriere and President of the Republic, said, must be provided with the ingredients it needs to make choices. Not only at the ballot box but in everyday life. Knowledge in order to deliberate. Public opinion, the cornerstone of an advanced democracy, is made up of citizens with a critical spirit, not subjects who swallow everything they are told. And opinions must be respected. All of them."