ASIA/MALAYSIA - Archbishop Leow to Catholic journalists: "Keep truth and reality together"

Tuesday, 4 April 2017 social communications   mass media   signis   laity   evangelization  

Kuala Lumpur (Agenzia Fides) - "Be honest in your reporting. Always attentive to truth. Verify facts and value accuracy over speed. As Catholics, we are called to hold reality and truth together": This is what Archbishop Julian Leow said, who leads the community in Kuala Lumpur, during the seminar entitled "Communicating Hope and Trust" held in recent days in the capital of Malaysia and convened by "SIGNIS", World Catholic Association for Communication and reserved for Catholic journalists working in the continent. As Fides learns, Archbishop Leow then reflected on the meaning of the message: "to be the message: through your lifestyle, your values, the person that you are. The testimony of life speaks more than the writings. The decision is yours to be a person of integrity, even at times refusing to write something that leaders ask to write if it goes against conscience".
The seminar focused on communicating hope and trust and fight fake news. It was attended by over 20 journalists from 13 Asian countries: Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Korea, the Philippines and Singapore. As Jim McDonnell, of the general Secretariat of "SIGNIS" remarked, the organization intends to offer support for journalists at the international level and to meet the challenges of fake news, to promote ethical professional journalism and to build a global network, to strengthen solidarity and to support freedom of expression.
Augustine Anthuvan, from Signis Singapore, helped the participants to develop ideas for working together, urging them to "think in partnership," while Alan John, director of Asia Journalism Fellowship examined the mechanisms of fake news, propaganda of misleading information, the contents that feed hatred. Terence Fernandes, Consultant, Communications and Perception Management, Malaysia, concluded the seminar with a comparison among the present, especially in perspective to setting up connections among the professionals of the Catholic media in their countries. (PA-AG) (Agenzia Fides 04/04/2017)


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