Pope Leo salutes journalists who risk lives to uphold truth

Vatican City, 9 October, 2025 – Pope Leo XIV, addressing MINDS International on Wednesday, honoured journalists risking their lives to report truth, stating, “If today we know what is happening in Gaza, Ukraine, and every other land bloodied by bombs, we largely owe it to them.”

The Pope praised their “extraordinary eyewitness accounts” as the result of “daily efforts of countless people who work to ensure that information is not manipulated for ends that are contrary to truth and human dignity.” He insisted, “Doing the work of a journalist can never be considered a crime,” calling for the release of detained reporters and urging media to uphold “competence, courage, and a sense of ethics” against political or ideological suppression.

Highlighting the paradox of an “age of communication” in crisis, Pope Leo noted, “no one today can say, ‘I did not know’,” as information remains “a public good” requiring responsible reporting. He echoed Pope Francis, seeking “courageous entrepreneurs, courageous information engineers” to combat clickbait and disinformation, and warned of artificial intelligence, asking, “Who controls the algorithms, who directs it, and for what purposes?”

Quoting Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism, he cautioned that “the distinction between fact and fiction, and the distinction between true and false no longer exist” in a post-truth world. Pope Leo concluded, “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,” urging transparency and objectivity to sustain a “bulwark of civility.”

Pope Leo salutes journalists who risk lives to uphold truth

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