World Day of Press Freedom

by Peter Knox SJ

Sunday, 3 May marked World Press Freedom Day. We paused to pray for those journalists who have been killed around the world simply doing their job. The International Federation of Journalists reported that 128 media workers were killed last year. These included ten women. 56 fatalities were listed in Gaza-Palestine. Eleven journalists died in Latin America, ten in Europe, and fifteen in the Asia-Pacific region. Of the 18 journalists who died in Africa in 2025, six were killed covering the war in Sudan, and seven died in a car accident in Nigeria. 533 journalists are in jail, the majority of whom are in China. It was a moment for us to be grateful that in South Africa, we have a free press. 

But we should not become too complacent. We need to be critical of ourselves as consumers of “news,” and be discerning about where and how we source it. Yesterday, an older member of our community was very worried that he had seen on YouTube that Pope Leo had closed the Vatican Bank and abolished stipends for priests. I advised him to verify the source he was using and to choose official or professional communication channels. If something online is too sensational or unexpected, then it is probably not accurate, or actually fabricated to cause an emotional reaction—anger or outrage. 

Reputable sources are more likely to have trained journalists with a professional understanding of the topics they are reporting. In fact, in this case, what had happened was that in December 2025, Pope Leo had said that the Vatican Bank would no longer be the ONLY bank through which funding for the Vatican State would be received. The distortion of the story had caused my colleague to worry and become upset. It was couched in terms of Pope Leo undoing the economic damage that Pope Francis had done, and was clearly an anti-Francis trope. 

We are privileged to be living in an age with a free flow of information. This precious commodity is generally no longer being controlled by cartels or the captains of business and politics. News has been “democratised” since so many people have cameras on their cellphones, and can often record events when journalists are not on the scene. The footage can be circulated via mass media, frequently with raw emotional commentary. Thus, reaction to highly charged events can spread like wildfire. It is no wonder that repressive regimes like Uganda and Iran impose total internet blackouts when they don’t want certain stories to spread. 

In his message for World Communications Day, which will fall on Sunday, 17 May this year, Pope Leo cautioned us against being unreflective consumers of artificial intelligence (AI). Machines do not and cannot mimic the human spirit, which is created to be in tune with God.  Nefarious wealthy individuals have designed “bots” or “virtual influencers” to filter and compile information, to influence public debates and people’s choices. Their construction of “alternative reality” is never totally innocuous. We have to be cautious not to allow ourselves to be manipulated by computer-generated stories. We can no longer take our news at face value, but should remain grateful for journalists who are committed to exposing the deeper realities in our society.