» SubscribeMain section
-
Top story
Radio Vatican spreads pope's anti-war message around the world
Radio Vatican has become one of the main voices against the bias in the mainstream media in the UK and US in connection with the Iraqi invasion.Monday, 31-Mar-2003 10:00AM Story from AFP / Bruno Bartolini
Copyright 2003 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
http://www.prolog.net/webnews/wed/dh/Qiraq-war-vatican.RjYY_DMV.html
VATICAN CITY, March 31 (AFP) - Radio Vatican is going all out to spread Pope John Paul II's anti-war message around the world and highlight the human cost of the war, director of programmes Ignacio Arregui said Monday. "Unlike other broadcasters, we don't go on about the number of missiles fired at Baghdad or the number of tanks charging through the desert," Arregui, a Jesuit from Spain's Basque region, told AFP.
"But thanks to our special envoys -- men of the cloth who remain with their flock and with those who suffer -- we can, for example, bring live coverage of the consequences of the destruction of the communications and water infrastructures. In other words, the disasters caused by the conflict," he added.
"Our interviews are devoted to public health workers and hospitals, to the sicknesses and epidemics that may end up killing more people than bombs." Radio Vatican is run by the Jesuits, or "the company of Jesus", often associated with the Catholic Church's missionary work. The station's Jesuit director, Pasquale Borromeo, is responsible for some very opinionated editorials. On Monday, Radio Vatican broadcast around the world an editorial originally published in the American Jesuit journal "America", which condemned the war.
"It was a far-reaching editorial explaining to American Catholics that rejecting the war is not the same as betraying your country. Quite the opposite. War is a disaster and opposing it will help your country," said Arregui. Between 500 and 600 Catholic stations on four continents -- concentrated in the Americas, Europe and the Near and Middle East -- broadcast Radio Vatican's daily coverage of the war in Italian, English, French and Spanish. The news is also translated into some 20 other languages to be used by Catholic radio stations round the world.
"We have 123 correspondents around the world, many of whom are correspondents for major newspapers," said Arregui. "We don't have 'war reporters' in Iraq," he added. "But our special envoys are even better informed of what's going on in the theatre of war: they're bishops, priests and monks on the spot who give us moving and occasionally shocking testimony of the suffering of local populations.
"Here at the Vatican we're only about fifty staff, journalists and others. But we also rely on help from other media's correspondents who usually make themselves available to us. They know that Radio Vatican isn't 'the competition'", he said.
Radio Vatican was founded 72 years ago by Pope Pius XI, who asked the Italian inventor of radio, Guglielmo Marconi, to set the station up in the Vatican. It broadcasts on radio, satellite and over the Internet -- see www.Vaticanradio.org which carries a complete list of radio wavelengths.
http://www.Vaticanradio.org/inglese/enindex.htmlLINKSwww.Vaticanradio.org/inglese/enindex.html
www.prolog.net/webnews/wed/dh/Qiraq-war-vatican.RjYY_DMV.html
Last modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003
Previous war reporting stories
US Drops 'E-Bomb' On Iraqi TV
We Work for Peace and Justice
WHILE OTHERS STOOD SILENT...
War Update from www.rense.com
24/7 Journalism Exposed
Bitter Rice - an Israeli looks at the war
Leaked BBC memo explains negative attitude to coverage of dissent.
PENTAGON THREATENS TO KILL INDEPENDENT REPORTERS IN IRAQ
Reporting War on Iraq: The Challenge for Public Service Broadcasting
MEDIA ACTIVISM (continued)
WAR SPIN
ACTIVISM PAYS OFF (II)
Times, NPR Change Their Take on DC Protests
ACTIVISM PAYS OFF (I)
BUSH'S "BLUEPRINT FOR US GLOBAL DOMINATION"
SELLING THE WAR
WAGING WAR ON IRAQ TO WIN THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS
WAR TALK
Not in My Name: A Cutting-Edge Film-Documentary
The Axis of Spin
WITHOUT COMMENT
CENSORSHIP & DISINFORMATION - The War of Minds
New Video Documentary: "NOT IN MY NAME"
WITHOUT COMMENT
THE OTHERS
THE GAPS IN THE REPORTS
SUSPICIOUS INCIDENTS
NATIONAL ANTI-WAR ANTI-SANCTIONS CONFERENCE: RESIST!
SEPTEMBER 11 RELATIVES SPEAK IN LONDON
Alice Mahon MP with Peter Gowan, New Left Review.
Emergency security measures in USA curb basic freedoms
-
Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
-
Previous stories
War Reporting
US Drops 'E-Bomb' On Iraqi TV
We Work for Peace and Justice
WHILE OTHERS STOOD SILENT...
War Update from www.rense.com
24/7 Journalism Exposed
Bitter Rice - an Israeli looks at the war
Leaked BBC memo explains negative attitude to coverage of dissent.
PENTAGON THREATENS TO KILL INDEPENDENT REPORTERS IN IRAQ
Reporting War on Iraq: The Challenge for Public Service Broadcasting
MEDIA ACTIVISM (continued)
WAR SPIN
ACTIVISM PAYS OFF (II)
Times, NPR Change Their Take on DC Protests
ACTIVISM PAYS OFF (I)
BUSH'S "BLUEPRINT FOR US GLOBAL DOMINATION"
SELLING THE WAR
WAGING WAR ON IRAQ TO WIN THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS
WAR TALK
Not in My Name: A Cutting-Edge Film-Documentary
The Axis of Spin
WITHOUT COMMENT
CENSORSHIP & DISINFORMATION - The War of Minds
New Video Documentary: "NOT IN MY NAME"
WITHOUT COMMENT
THE OTHERS
THE GAPS IN THE REPORTS
SUSPICIOUS INCIDENTS
NATIONAL ANTI-WAR ANTI-SANCTIONS CONFERENCE: RESIST!
SEPTEMBER 11 RELATIVES SPEAK IN LONDON
Alice Mahon MP with Peter Gowan, New Left Review.
Emergency security measures in USA curb basic freedoms
