In his most recent prayer video, the Pope dedicated the month of October towards prayers for journalists, so that their work would always be motivated by strong ethics and respect for the truth.
As Catholic News Agency reports, the video was released on the 4th of October, and starts off with shots of a television studio, a recording studio, some writing desks and satellites, which appear across the screen as the Pope begins to speak. In native Spanish, the Pope states that he often wonders, "How can media be put to the service of a culture of encounter?" going on to add that what is needed is information leading to a "commitment for the common good of humanity and the planet."
He continues, asking if viewers would join him in praying for those who work in the field of communication. More particularly, he prays that journalists, in carrying out their work, may always be motivated by respect for the truth and a strong sense of ethics. At the close of the video, the Pope questions viewers if they could help him with the request, to which each featured journalist responds with a 'yes.'
Speaking to the online publication, Alvaro de Juana, a correspondent for CNA's sister-agency ACI Prensa who featured in the video stated, "For years there has been talk of an economic crisis, but the Church and concretely Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis have said on many occasions that there is also a crisis of values."
He explained that within this crisis, ethics and morality have been forgotten and have been discarded in many environments and in important questions, and because of this, a journalist has the duty to respect ethics and morality.
"There is no journalism without ethics," de Juana added, elaborating that if ethics were removed from the equation, it would undermine the profession that has truth as its foundation.