Conference paper
Proffesional Values for Agency Journalism and Responsability for Public Information
Anton Šuljić
Abstract
The author deals with the subject as a church communicator, and bases his presentation on his profession, and on relevant church documents. In his last document dedicated to the media, Pope John Paul II, warned that the greatest challenge for all people is to support a truthful and free communication, to develop the world progress. The author claims that all journalism, especially, agency
journalism, should be truthful and objective. A journalist must respect the facts, and we must talk about the truth because media roots contain trails of socialistic propaganda. He emphasizes the importance of the truth based on the documents and facts. Still, correct news is not always the whole truth, because elements for its
truthfulness are often missing. News and the truth are not the same and must be distinguished. News speaks of an event, the truth finds hidden facts, links them, and forms a reality. The journalist offers facts, links them and publishes them helping the truth to find its way to reality. This makes his work interesting, important, responsible and dramatic. The author claims that the freedom of communication daily struggles with the market dictates and media corporations which manipulate the market for their own purposes. The church feels obligated to participate in the discussion about media, and wishes to contribute with its moral and human experiences to preserving human dignity. Media are the critical conscience of society, but there is a real possibility that the media transform themselves into a pseudo religion and create their own mythology. The church insists on dialog, cooperation, and agency journalism is her natural alley in this task. The challenges deriving from the commercial world demand
new activities and contents, but the basis of journalism is truth and objectiveness. Hina most definitely represents the most significant media asset in the contemporary Croatian society.
Keywords
church communicator; news; truth; ethics
Hrčak ID:
22963
URI
Publication date:
20.6.2006.
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