On Saturday, Pope Francis urged reporters to investigate the field and not stay behind a computer, while warning against posting unverified information on social media.
“The publishing crisis may lead to fabricated information in newsrooms, in front of computers, agency screens, on social networks, without going out into the street, without more + shoe sole wear +, without meeting people to search for stories or to directly verify specific situations.” , Confirms the Pope in a text distributed by the Vatican.
Thus, “the type of investigation and the report loses its standing and quality in favor of ready-made information,” the Pope is concerned, in this message devoted to the World Day of Social Communications, which will be held on May 16th.
Nevertheless, journalism “demands the ability to go where no one is going,” remembers the Supreme Pontiff, praising the courage of professionals who take great risks to evoke persecuted minorities, oppression against the poor or even forgotten wars.
The current danger is “to tell the pandemic, in the same way about every crisis, only with the eyes of the world’s wealthiest,” as he notes in passing.
If the internet makes it possible to “share testimonials” about things being viewed, the Pope praises, “everyone is now aware of the dangers of social media deprived of checks” while news and photos “can be easily manipulated for thousands of reasons.”
The Argentine Pope, who constantly urges the clergy to come out of their cocoons and go to the square, ruled on Saturday that the challenge for the church is also to “communicate by meeting people” and “go where no one wants. To go.”
And the Pope, who has canceled all his trips abroad since the start of the epidemic, wants to visit Iraq in early March.
