It took the Guardian leader writiers – Tom Clark and Julian Glover – three drafts, after much e-mail to-and-fro-ing among the participant editors to finalise the text. Reflecting on how the shared editorial project emerged Guardian’s Ian Katz wrote , ” Given that newspapers are inherently rivalrous, proud and disputatious, viewing the world through very different national and political prisms, the prospect of getting a sizeable cross-section of them to sign up to a single text on such a momentous and divisive issue seemed like a long shot “.

Ian acknowledged The Hindu was in on the project right from the start - ‘an early, enthusiastic, conversation with the editor of one of India’s biggest dailies offered encouragement’.

The media initiative may not alter policy positions held by most countries, notably, the major ones that already have their minds made up even before going to Copenhagen. What is notable is that the initaiive represents a measure of acceptance by the world media that there are issues that call for beyond-the-border thinking. Next, the progressives in the media ought to come up with a common edit on combating jihadi terrorism ; even if someone out there says, ‘go to hell’.