Pope Francis: local news is as important as national news

Source: Vatican News

Yesterday reporters and technical staff from RAI TV's local news channel had an audience with Pope Francis to mark their 40th anniversary. During their visit the Pope told them "local news is no less important than national news."

He said local news and information is actually more genuine and authentic because it communicates "the voice of the people," in all aspects of peoples' social, cultural and spiritual life.

Local information gives space to local realities and cultures,the Pope said, to news that would not be broadcast otherwise. More than ever, we need news to be communicated completely and thoughtfully, "so as to encourage reflection."

Pope Francis explained the difference between what he called "harmful globalisation and good globalisation". The latter "unites us, and can help us to be members of one another", he said. Harmful globalisation, on the other hand, "makes everyone the same, rather than valuing diversities, cultures, histories and traditions."

"Regional information comes from the territory with a very precise mission, which is expressed in two directions", continued Pope Francis. "The first is to immerse itself in the everyday, in local reality, made up of people, events, projects, problems and hopes."

The second, he said, is to transmit that reality to a wider audience. It also means giving "voice to poverty, challenges, and local emergencies", as well as to "testimonies of faith."

Pope Francis concluded by encouraging television journalists and staff to continue telling the stories, and making known "those authentic realities that are still found in many corners of Italy: realities that do not give in to indifference, that do not remain silent in the face of injustice, that do not follow fashions. There is a "submerged ocean of goodness," said the Pope, "that deserves to be known."