This is the next installment in the CNN Opinion series on the challenges facing the media, under attack from critics, governments and changing technology.

London (CNN) A few short days ago, here in Britain we marked Armistice Day.

I am sure such ceremonies happen in many other parts of the world, too, but somehow Great Britain seems the fitting place to honor service, sacrifice, and how "the little country that could" gathered its friends in a mighty coalition to defeat monstrous tyranny, not once in the Great War, but again in World War II.

So, observing Remembrance Sunday is an annual exercise in humility, reverence, gratitude and above all, ensuring that so much sacrifice and giving shall never be forgotten.

To witness the Queen and members of the royal family, the Prime Minister, and all her living predecessors, the leaders of all the political parties, the leaders of more than a dozen faiths, the armed services and the dozens of commonwealth nations, all coming together on a cold, sunny Sunday morning to lay the blood-red poppy wreaths at the foot of the Cenotaph in Whitehall, is a stark reminder in our tribal times of a shared humanity, a collective community, with common values and purpose. This one exercise vividly paints the picture of how our democracies have survived.

I always get emotional, but for me the reason this matters so much is because it is also about the men and women of my profession, journalists who have never left the front lines of the battle for truth.

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