 |
| Pope Francis is seen through the rain-covered window of his vehicle as he leaves at the end of his weekly general audience at St Peter's Square at the Vatican on May 15, 2019. (AFP Photo/Vincenzo PINTO) |
Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis on Saturday urged journalists to desist from publishing fake news, saying it could cause harm, and instead "take time to understand" issues before reporting on them.
Receiving
foreign journalists in the Vatican, the pontiff also urged journalists to
remain "humble" saying humility "prevents the rotten flow of
disinformation and offers the good bread of truth."
Pope
Francis said humility was of great importance as it implies consciousness
"that through an article, a tweet, a live broadcast either televised or on
radio can do good, but also if one is not attentive and scrupulous, harm."
He also
said journalists must be very careful of their choice of words in an era of
"hostile language" proliferating everywhere, especially on social
media.
"Everyone
knows how the search for truth is difficult and demands humility," he
said.
He also
asked the press to speak of "wars forgotten by society.
"Who
still talks of the Rohingyas?" he said. "Who still speaks of the
Yazidis? They are forgotten and they continue to suffer."
About 740,000
Muslim minority Rohingya have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh since a brutal
military crackdown began in August 2017.
Thousands
of refugees attempt to flee the Bangladeshi camps each year in pursuit of
better opportunities in countries such as Malaysia and Thailand.
They
frequently spend their life savings to embark on dangerous boat journeys they
believe will improve their lives, but many fall prey to international human
trafficking gangs.
The Yazidi
community once numbered around 500,000 members in the mountainous Sinjar region
of northwest Iraq, but it was ravaged by the Islamic State's 2014 sweep into
the area.
Jihadists
killed Yazidi men, forced boys to join their ranks as fighters and abducted and
imprisoned thousands of Yazidi women as sex slaves.
Related Article:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.