VATICAN CITY CNS – Journalists can help stop those who seek to create divisions through “the ancient art of lying” and ruling by dividing, Pope Leo XIV said.
“You can also be a bulwark of civility against the quicksand of approximation and post-truth,” he told journalists and staff of major news agencies during an audience at the Vatican Oct. 9.
Communications “cannot and must not separate its work from the sharing of truth,” he said.
“Transparency of sources and ownership, accountability, quality and objectivity are the keys to restoring the role of citizens as protagonists in the system, convincing them to demand information worthy of the name,” he said, urging the journalists to “never sell out your authority!”
The Pope was speaking to people attending an international conference in Rome Oct. 9-10 sponsored by MINDS International, a global news agency network and think tank aimed at supporting innovation and the digitization of media. Paolo Ruffini, prefect for the Dicastery for Communication, was one of the guest speakers at the conference.
“It is a paradox that in the age of communication, news and media agencies are undergoing a period of crisis,” the Pope said. “Similarly, those who consume information are also in crisis, often mistaking the false for the true and the authentic for the artificial.”
“Information is a public good that we should all protect,” he said, encouraging “a partnership between citizens and journalists in the service of ethical and civic responsibility.”
“One form of active citizenship is to value and support professionals and agencies that demonstrate seriousness and true freedom in their work,” he said, because “this creates a virtuous circle that benefits society as a whole.”
“The world needs free, rigorous and objective information,” he said, quoting the late Hannah Arendt, who warned in her 1951 work, The Origins of Totalitarianism, that “the ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist.”
“With your patient and rigorous work, you can act as a barrier against those who, through the ancient art of lying, seek to create divisions in order to rule by dividing,” he said.
“Communication must be freed from the misguided thinking that corrupts it, from unfair competition and from the degrading practice of so-called clickbait,” he said.
“News agencies are at the frontlines, and are called upon to act in the current communications environment according to principles – unfortunately not always shared – that unite the economic sustainability of the company with the protection of the right to accurate and balanced information,” Pope Leo said.
People working for a news agency “are expected to write quickly, under pressure, even in very complex and dramatic situations,” he said.
For these reasons, he said, “your service requires competence, courage and a sense of ethics,” which are “invaluable and must be an antidote to the proliferation of ‘junk’ information.”
“We are not destined to live in a world where truth is no longer distinguishable from fiction,” he said, calling for greater vigilance so that “technology does not replace human beings, and that the information and algorithms that govern it today are not in the hands of a few.”
“Algorithms generate content and data at a scale and speed never seen before,” he said, and people must ask, “Who controls them?” and who is directing artificial intelligence and for what purposes?
Pope Leo also recognized reporters “who put their lives at risk to inform people about what is really happening” and the many reporters who have died while doing their job.
“They are victims of war and of the ideology of war, which seeks to prevent journalists from being there at all,” he said. “We must not forget them! If today we know what is happening in Gaza, Ukraine and every other land bloodied by bombs, we largely owe it to them.”
“These extraordinary eyewitness accounts,” he said, are thanks to those working “to ensure that information is not manipulated for ends that are contrary to truth and human dignity.”
Pope Leo repeated his appeal for the release of reporters who have been “unjustly persecuted and imprisoned for doing their job,” adding that “doing the work of a journalist can never be considered a crime, but it is a right that must be protected.”
“Free access to information is a pillar that upholds the edifice of our societies, and for this reason we are called to defend and guarantee it,” he said.
“May the Spirit of God, who is truth and strength, and instills meekness and courage, sustain you,” he told the journalists, concluding the audience and imparting his blessing.
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