Pope calls for media freedom
The news media must be free from special interest pressures and government control and ”rise above purely commercial concerns,” the pope said in a message today.
“If the media are to serve freedom, they themselves must be free and correctly use that freedom,” John Paul said.
The pope’s views on the power of the news media to create a “positive or negative reaction to events” were set down in an annual message for the World Communications Day that the Roman Catholic Church marks on June 1.
“The communications media are key actors in today’s world,” the pope said. “Reasonable people will realise that such enormous power calls for the highest standards of commitment to truth and goodness.”
He decried that the media sometimes function as “agents of propaganda and disinformation” and said they must not be used in the name of class conflict, exaggerated nationalism, racial supremacy and ethnic cleansing.
“Setting some against others in the name of religion is a particularly serious failure against truth and justice,” John Paul said.
The pope said that while some public regulation is appropriate for the common good, “government control is not.”
