Holy Father Pope Francis met in the Vatican a delegation from the “Biagio Agnes” International Journalism Prize of Italy during which he urged journalists to serve the truth, revive hope and not to ignore the peripheries. The Pontiff said that theirs is a demanding job in an age marked by “digital convergence” and “media transformation.”
As reported by vaticannews.va, Holy Father Pope Francis remarked that “Even though the nerve centres of news production are found in large centres, one must never forget the stories of people who live far away in the peripheries. Sometimes they are stories of suffering and degradation; other times they are stories of great solidarity that can help everyone to look at reality in a renewed way.” Further, the Pontiff added, “A journalist needs to be very demanding with himself to avoid falling into the trap of a mentality of opposing merely for the sake of interests and ideologies. In today’s fast world, it is very urgent, to pursue in-depth research, confront and to be silent, when needed, rather than hurt a person or a group of people or delegitimize an event. It is a difficult job but it must help us become brave and, I would say, also prophetic.”
His Holiness Pope Francis concluded his meeting by encouraging that “ a journalist should not feel satisfied just recounting an event in accordance with his or her free and conscious responsibility. It is a question of opening up areas of hope while denouncing situations of degradation and despair.” A journalist, he said, is “called to keep open a space of exit, of meaning, of hope.”
